


all of your demons will wither away

by Skyson



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Mace x Daisy, QuakePatriot, Season/Series 04, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 01:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18305195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyson/pseuds/Skyson
Summary: Daisy doesn't hold much stock in the whole soulmate idea.Her opinion on the subject is about to go further downhill.A little soulmate story with consequences; a reimagining of Season 4.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had eventually come across [ this post](https://krebkrebkreb.tumblr.com/post/174314054083/bluandorange-you-know-what-soulmate-aus-need) and finally hit a soulmate AU idea that really scratched my itch for a soulmate story. Thanks to you two folks on Tumblr who shared your ideas for us to run away with.
> 
> Timeline begins during Season 4, but the entire LMD arc and everything that followed is nixed. Familiar scenes are rewritten a bit as I've amped up Senator Ellen Nadeer’s storyline, added in some classic Roxxon to the mix, and - the main dish - the existence of soulmates.

"No love for your new Director?" Daisy raised her eyebrow at Fitz and Simmons. She sensed a story, here, and her investigative days in the Rising Tide temporarily jumped to the forefront of her mind. "What'd he do?"

She'd never been totally fond of the vibes she'd gotten from the Director during their past brief meeting, but after hearing Simmons' story of being shuffled around like a pawn, and the hostage Inhuman, her distaste for the man in the suit only increased. A partnership with Senator Nadeer didn't make any sense, though. As much as the others seemed convinced Mace was working with the enemy, she couldn't see how.

Maybe that was because she was on the outside now, though. Maybe she just didn't see the same things in the new Director that the rest of the team saw. Or maybe, as a fellow Inhuman, she was too biased toward wanting him to be a good guy.

Intent on sharing the news of what Fitz had figured out about Morrow, she walked in on Mace and Coulson having some kind of lover's quarrel or something in the Zephyr's loading bay. Overhearing part of their argument, though, she also wanted to confront the Director about Senator Nadeer's Inhuman prisoner. She momentarily put Eli Morrow on the back-burner.

"You're an Inhuman. Why would you want to work with someone who hates us so much?"

"You wanna know why?" Mace asked her, his soft expression hardening in an instant. "Take a look in the mirror." She chose not to respond to that. "Senator Nadeer has photos of you in the prison, with Reyes and that dead gangster he left behind - Santino Noguera. And she was gonna go public." He snorted humorlessly. "Imagine the press? 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Working With Domestic Terrorists and Murderers'."

"You were trying to protect S.H.I.E.L.D." Coulson realized quietly.

Well, shit. _That_  was actually a good point. On one hand Daisy was pleased that her gut reaction toward Mace was somewhat correct - he wasn't as bad as Fitz and Simmons thought - but on the other hand, he'd _still_  made a deal with the proverbial devil. And he'd kept it a secret from everyone. Why _hadn't_  he told the team about the deal? It's not like they would’ve gone spouting off to the press about it, and he would've probably at least earned their respect for his efforts to protect them.

"It's the job I was hired to do." Mace shrugged to Coulson. "Did I let Agent Simmons go examine an Inhuman?" He pointed his question toward Daisy. "Yeah. Did I want to know more about him? Absolutely. But I didn't have that option at the time."

"Why the hell didn't you just come to me in the first place?" Coulson wondered, and Daisy raised her eyebrows in agreement.

She also briefly wondered if there was something more going on, here. Coulson sounded almost personally insulted; she glanced between the two men again. What all had she missed while she was gone? Were they soulmates, or something? What reason did Coulson have to sound so hurt?

"Now why would I do that? In case you haven't noticed, Phil, we're not a team that trusts." Mace looked defeated, then, and sat down on a nearby crate. "We're not a team at all."

Coulson looked over at Daisy, and she widened her eyes at him just a little bit. She didn't know this guy and frankly was trying to come to terms with the fact that he was downright _pouting_  right now. Is this what Directors did, now? Pout?

Coulson sighed, and stepped in front of Mace, licking his lip thoughtfully before he spoke. Daisy watched them both closely, curiously. She was definitely getting some soulmate vibes between them right now. She made a mental note to ask Simmons about that later.

"Well, maybe you're right." Coulson began softly, and Mace looked up at him. "But we damn well better become one if we're going to stop Eli Morrow from blowing up half of Los Angeles." Mace looked determined, then, and Daisy found it interesting that even in their argument he still looked to Coulson for direction.

Then she realized that they were back on topic.

"Oh, that. Right." She pushed her musings to the side. "Fitz figured that out." Both men stared at her in surprise, and she smiled grimly before turning and heading back into the main area of the Zephyr. She figured she'd leave them a moment to make up, or whatever, before they got back to work.

 

**\------**

 

"I gotta get outside, it's too much," Daisy stumbled to her feet, hurrying out of the basement before any of the others responded. She couldn't wait to see if their plan had completely worked; she felt like she was seconds from exploding. "I gotta get outta here..."

All of that energy, after all, had to go somewhere.

Her feet took her outside through sense memory alone, and as soon as she was far enough away from her friends she let it all go, flowing through her new gauntlets unrestrained.

She'd never pushed herself that high into the sky before. For a moment, she felt weightless, both from the altitude and the jarringly sudden emptiness inside of her. Such sweet relief.

It was only for a moment, though, and then she was falling. She managed to twist herself midair and push one last burst of energy at the last minute before she crashed against the asphalt. She stumbled, dropping to one knee, and kept her head down for a moment until the nausea passed. Thankfully, at least, she couldn't feel any more earthquakes that she needed to absorb. She took that as what she hoped was a good sign.

As she tried to catch her breath, running feet and amazed voices broke through her fogged mind.

"Is that Quake?"

Aw, man.

Cameras were snapping away and she glanced around wildly, looking for an escape through the quickly growing crowd. She was too worn out; she couldn't just Quake-jump away again.

"Quake! Quake! Have you been here this whole time?!"

A few cops ran up and managed to keep the reporters at bay, but just barely. Daisy managed to push herself to her feet, her mind scrambling for how to interact with these people. How did Coulson want her to respond to their questions? How did Mace? She didn't want to get S.H.I.E.L.D. in further trouble with the media or the government.

"The Director said she wasn't here!"

"Quake! Quake!"

Everywhere she looked were flashing lights, shouting questions, microphones being pushed in her direction. They'd surrounded her entirely at this point, pressing in even with the police presence. Already physically overwhelmed, this was quickly becoming too much mentally, and she frantically tried to recall May's teachings from back when she was first learning to control her powers.

Breathe, Daisy, breathe.

They weren't _letting_  her, though - her fingers were shaking and she wasn't sure whether that was human adrenalin or Inhuman residual powers leaking out uncontrollably. If she didn't calm down, she might accidentally hurt these people. They were annoying, but she couldn't _hurt_  them - that wouldn't look good for her or for S.H.I.E.L.D. ...

"Calm down!" A stern voice ordered over the crowd, and they slowly petered out into silence. Daisy also found herself taking those words to heart. "Quiet! Please!"

Mace pushed himself through until he was standing right next to Daisy, and she couldn't help but feel grateful for the diversion for a moment. It wasn't quite the same relief she felt up in the air a minute ago, but it was close.

"Please." He requested again, holding his hand up to keep them all quiet. "You're right," he began, "I lied to you." Almost in tandem, the reporters turned their mics in his direction. Daisy couldn't help but let out a small sigh in relief as he took the focus away from her, and she focused more intently on her breathing as he spoke. "Quake was here the entire time."

Mace turned to look at her, and she could feel the concern emanating off of him. It was only for the blink of an eye, and then his attention was back toward the reporters, though he shifted infinitesimally closer to her, their shoulders touching. He could tell how weak she felt, and she let herself lean against his support, but only slightly. It wasn't even enough for the cameras to pick up, probably. Still, she appreciated it.

"But she was not responsible for the danger here today. _Agent Johnson_ ,"

What _the hell_  was he doing?

"- saved us all." He smiled softly at her, and she then realized what he was doing. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Just go with it. You'll thank me later."

She hated how cocky he was. It grated on her. But she was also grateful that in this moment he was pulling her out of hot water - he just so happened to be helping himself and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the process. He lifted his hand up between them, and she pasted a smile on her face, giving him a small nod as she raised her own to shake his. He grasped her hand immediately, maybe having an idea how much it hurt for her to lift her arm right now, and he supported her gauntlet with his other hand.

The gesture, somewhat surprisingly, calmed her further and made her feel a little more confident - at least about the immediate situation in front of them. And it made her feel even more appreciative.

The cameras began to flash again, and the chattering of the reporters began anew.

 

**\------**

 

Daisy wasn't sure how she felt about being back; with all the new rules and regulations. And she definitely didn't like that she felt rather trapped, what with the Director announcing her to the world as an agent. She couldn't just go back out onto the streets, now. Even if his decision had been to save everyone's skin in the heat of the moment after Morrow, she still resented it on a level.

The fact that the new face of S.H.I.E.L.D. was an Inhuman did win him some brownie points, though. Certainly it was a good sign for the future of Inhumans.

She enjoyed being able to spend more time with Mack again, too, and to get to know his soulmate - also getting to see the two of them discover their connection, as an eye-witness, was pretty awesome. She didn't always have great thoughts about the whole soulmate thing, but Mack and Elena were _adorable_.

And as the weeks wore on, between the two of them and FitzSimmons, Daisy was well aware of the side-effects of meeting your soulmate, the good and the bad.

_"There's an order to things in this seemingly chaotic universe. There are laws."_

Fitz's words rang over and over through Daisy's head. She couldn't remember specifically when he'd said that, but she couldn't shake it now. Couldn't shake it in the same way she felt, even weeks later, like she hadn't yet truly recovered from their fight with Morrow. The same way she couldn't shake this perpetual headache, the heaviness of her limbs, the way that her skin itched.

She knew what this was, much as she wanted to deny it.

Lovesickness.

Well, hell.


	2. Chapter 2

"I must admit, we make a pretty impressive pair."

Daisy bit back her sarcastic comment on that as she picked up the newspaper he'd dropped on his desk. He was still far too smug for her liking.

"Well." She mused at the photograph on the front page, and looked back up at him. "Looks like we're stuck with each other."

"I was just trying to make the most of the precarious situation you put me in." He replied with a tiny smirk.

Was he _flirting_  right now? He just couldn't turn off the charming home-town-boy attitude, could he? Well, he would learn real quickly how little that tactic worked with her.

"Is this where I get read the riot act?" She figured, bristling at his attitude. He blinked at her.

"Not by me." He returned easily, and she raised her eyebrow in surprise. "However, if you're as smart as they say, then you'll know that uh, I saved you from being thrown in prison."

Oh, it was worse than flirting. He was looking for a damn _thank you_.

"You saved face." Daisy corrected, narrowing her eyes. No matter how much it might've given her brief comfort in front of the barrage of reporters, he'd still... "You turned it into a publicity stunt."

"You already had plenty of publicity," He pointed out, and began listing, "Destruction of public property, assault, armed robbery,"

"I never carry a weapon." She interrupted.

"You are the weapon!" He exclaimed, and she pressed her lips together. "The public was turning against you. Now? They look up to you! You're welcome!"

She briefly entertained the thought of Quaking his smug ass to the floor. She didn't really want to make the guy with super-strength even more pissed off, though. She also had to remind herself that as of now, he was her boss.

He turned away, looking annoyed with himself, and they both let a moment of silence go by to clear the frustration and annoyance out of the room. He rubbed his hand down his face as he stepped closer to his window.

"Okay. This isn't how I wanted this to go." He admitted, turning back toward her with a flash of an apologetic smile. She raised her eyebrow silently. "Ah..." He held his hands out in front of him. "We're both Inhuman. And as you say, we're stuck with each other. So," He folded his hands together in front of him, perhaps subconsciously copying her stance. Then again, perhaps he was doing it on purpose in an effort to make her feel more comfortable. "Why not make the most of it?" Then he said, "I read your written statement. And I believe it."

That sounded honest, at least. It was probably the most real thing he'd said to her so far since she'd entered his office.

"You were just trying to protect the innocent. And," He gave her a rather awkward smile, "I know you're new here, but that's what S.H.I.E.L.D. is all about."

She tilted her head at him, giving him a questionable look.

"New here...?"

"It was a joke. I was... making a joke, to, break the ice." He trailed off, his smile looking more embarrassed now.

"Got it." Coulson needed to work on teaching this guy how to actually be charming, because this was just painful. She wondered how Phil dealt with it, if they really were soulmates. She wondered how she could approach the subject with Mace without being awkward or rude about it.

"Eh," Mace acknowledge how sucky his joke was, and she pressed her lips together, not wanting him to know that she was actually amused now. He was still annoying as fuck, but his bumbling about was kind of... adorable, in a way. It was a really crappy trait to have as a Director, though.

They looked at one another in a beat of awkward silence, and her eyes caught the picture frame on the bookshelf to the left of his desk.

"Seems they look up to you, too." She noted, figuring that if he was going to take a step toward some kind of agreement, she'd take a step as well. If she was an agent, now, they had to make this work. Or at least, pretend well enough that even they believed it, occasionally. "The Hero of Vienna." She moved toward the bookshelf and touched the photo frame pointedly. "That's a nice pic." She jabbed at him. Yet another moment, turned into a publicity stunt.

"Not as big a deal as they made it; they gave me too much credit." It could've been a humble statement, but his tone was just... off. He was very contradictory, and she wasn't sure what to believe from him. That, in particular, kept her on edge and unable to feel completely comfortable around him.

"You don't get to be modest _and_  have a framed glamour shot on your desk." She replied, and he chuckled softly. He rocked on his toes a little, and looked her in the eye.

"Fair point." His expression, possibly for the first time today, actually looked real. "Look, we're a team now, and I have this saying. A team that - "

"Yeah I read the motivational poster in the bathroom." Daisy interrupted him, knowing that if he actually said that dorky sentence out loud in front of her, she would laugh. His excited look deflated into disappointment.

"Good." He tried to play it off. "Well, the team trust has been... eroded, for the both of us, but I'm hoping we can earn it back. Tackle problems together - within the administrative structure of course-"

"You want to tackle problems?" Daisy interrupted, not even wanting to know where he was going with the rest of that sentence. She walked back around to the front of his desk. "The Watchdogs. Enemy Number One. I believe they're funded internationally, they have ties to people within the U.S. government,"

"I don't want to chase conspiracy theories," He told her, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"It's not a theory if I can prove it."

"I want to chase hard facts. Like the _fact_ ," He stepped around the side of his desk, "Senator Nadeer is aware of an Inhuman who's being held against his will."

He set his tablet on his desk in front of her, revealing a file that he'd put together on the Senator. It looked like it had quite a bit of information on it, too, which told her that he'd started this file perhaps even before he'd made the 'agreement' with the Senator. Daisy looked up at Mace, and smiled a little.

"Now we're talking." Maybe he wasn't such a pansy bureaucrat after all.

"Agent Simmons has seen his face," Mace pointed out. "If she can I.D. him, maybe - "

"She did." Daisy interrupted, stealing a bit of his thunder again. He looked wrong footed for a moment. "He's the Senator's brother." At his surprised expression, she joked, "Breaking news."

"How fitting." He mused thoughtfully, looking a little horrified as well. "No wonder she used all those cloak-and-dagger methods. You got any leads on his whereabouts?"

"No sign of him, but _she's_  been out of the office all week."

"Okay..." He glanced thoughtfully away. "Agent Rodriguez is still recovering, so that leaves you, me, and Agent Simmons." He checked his watch. "Wheels up in ten." He turned back around to step behind his desk again.

"Wait, wait wait," He clearly had a plan and she wasn't sure that she knew what it was. "What? Where are we going?" She watched as he threw his suit jacket on, and he looked at her as if the answer should've been obvious.

"To rescue him."

Well. She couldn't deny the determination in his eyes. She smiled slowly, and he gave her a tiny smile in return.

 

**\------**

 

Watching Mace acknowledge and respect Simmons' decisions regarding her trust - or lack thereof - of him as a Director admittedly made him _gain_  some of Daisy's trust. He clearly had respect for the scientist, and that in turn earned him some of Daisy's respect.

"And, uh, I'm sorry I... put the bag over your head." He apologized quietly, looking ashamed of himself, and Daisy gave him an incredulous look before turning that look toward Simmons. She half took back her thoughts about respecting him. This guy was getting to be a real headache for her to deal with.

"Okay," Daisy inwardly shook her head, focusing on the mission ahead of them. "What's the play here, Director? How do we find this Senator and her brother?"

"Normally I'd use my contacts up on The Hill, go in, rattle a few cages, see what drops out, but..." Daisy gave his overly-intent tone a weird look. If he thought that was supposed to sound impressive, he was off the mark. "I don't want to draw too much attention."

"Downside of being front page news." Daisy pointed out, raising her eyebrows, entirely unfazed by his attempt to sound intimidating. She didn't take only talk about contributing - action was the only thing that proved one's motives in the end.

"Which means we need to find a more covert way in." Simmons piped up knowingly.

"Seeing as you both have more experience with undercover work, I'm open to suggestions." Mace replied.

Daisy shared a look with Simmons, both of them knowing it would have to be the scientist to actually go into the building. Daisy and Mace were, as Daisy had said, still front page news.

"In that case... Director, look up any kind of bills that the Senator would currently have an effect on. Something sciencey, if possible. Simmons, come with me and let's see what kind of tech goodies Coulson's been stashing on his planes," Daisy figured, getting to her feet. Then she glanced down at Mace's consternated expression. "The Director's planes." She corrected. He shrugged away the slip, and they got to work.

Daisy, of course, knew very well how talented Simmons had grown over the years in regards to the more black-ops aspects of being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Mace, however, was quite surprised as he and Daisy stood next to one another in front of the computer, listening in on Simmons' comms.

He'd braced his arm on the co-pilot chair, not necessarily in Daisy's space, but close enough that she noticed. Normally personal space was not considered an issue especially when working on comms with other people, but she was hyper-aware of his hand, well within her reach. She folded her arms tightly across her chest, inwardly frowning at herself at the temptation that itched at her own skin to touch his. What the hell was that about? Lovesickness was a damn doozy, and she didn’t have time to wonder about who her soulmate might be so that she could rectify her symptoms. In fact, she’d rather _not_  find out. She didn’t have time to deal with having a soulmate. She'd just have to push through the worse symptoms once they began to reveal themselves.

"I have to admit, Jemma is much tougher than I'd originally given her credit for." Mace sounded quite impressed, and Daisy rolled her eyes a little.

"Yeah, well, being in S.H.I.E.L.D. will do that to you." She mused. "I think Simmons has been kidnapped like, three times since I've known her." He drew back a little in surprise.

"Really?" He wondered with interest.

"Yeah - well, only twice on this planet." Daisy replied distractedly, furrowing her brow at herself. She tightened her hands tucked into her elbows, fighting against the urge to just brush her fingers against his knuckles. Even just once, very briefly; maybe he'll write it off as an accident as she was reaching for something else. The desire was so strong that she could envision it perfectly, imagine the way his hand might feel beneath her fingertips.

" _I'm going to need your phone._ " Simmons announced over the line, yanking Daisy's attention back into focus.

Fuck, her lovesickness must be nearing phase two for her to be considering touching _Mace_. She wasn't looking forward to phase two. She already dealt with aches and pains with her powers; to have the addition of lovesickness phase two was just a royal pain in the ass.

Daisy and Mace both shifted on their feet as sounds of a struggle ensued over comms. There wasn't anything they could do to help their friend, from here in the jet.

"Is she okay in there?" Mace asked in concern. There were a few more thumps and then a loud shattering noise, and Mace and Daisy shared a look.

"Simmons, are you there?" Daisy called out. "Is everything okay?" When it came down to it, if Simmons was seriously in trouble, they would go down there and help her, public relations be damned.

" _A little bloody and bruised, but I'll survive._ " She replied, and the two listening in relaxed with relief. Mace looked impressed, again, and Daisy pursed her lips. If he was starting to get a crush on Simmons, he was in for disappointment. She and Fitz were the most soul-matey of soulmates that Daisy had ever met. Plus, she still wasn’t convinced that there wasn’t something going on between Mace and Coulson, anyway.

They were able to track the phone fairly easily, and were led right into Senator Nadeer's home through the front door. Daisy couldn't help but feel a little proud as Mace announced to the Senator that Daisy was a hero, and saved a lot of lives. The Senator's face in response to that was priceless. Pointing out the hex mag in her ‘bodyguard's’ weapon was another barb that Daisy enjoyed throwing, and Mace even glanced over his shoulder to give her an amused, proud smirk.

Maybe he was right, maybe they did make a pretty good team.

"Guess it's not just a theory after all." He mused of Nadeer's Watchdog connections as he turned back toward her.

"These men are simply providing security." She replied tersely, the muscles beneath her eyes twitching. She was lying, and she was so bad at it. "The world has become a very dangerous place because of people like you," She informed Mace, who lifted his chin in defiance as he listened to her. "Why even today, I had an aide attacked in my office." She glanced toward Simmons, who merely raised her brow. "Which," The Senator continued, "is why I'm sure you understand my wariness to have S.H.I.E.L.D. agents show up uninvited to my private property - especially if they wish me harm."

"I can assure you," Mace replied calmly, taking a few steps closer to Nadeer. "We want no such thing." Daisy had to give it to him - he was a better liar than the Senator was. "We have reason to believe that your brother is being held here, against his will." Mace added seriously.

"At gunpoint." Simmons put in.

"That's a serious accusation you're making." Nadeer replied, even more tense than before. Even without Daisy's powers, she could see how nervous the Senator actually was.

"Well if you have nothing to hide, I'm sure you wouldn't mind us taking a quick look around," Daisy mused.

"Actually, I would mind." Nadeer said to Daisy, and then looked at Mace. "Does General Talbot even know that you're here?"

"This operation doesn't concern Talbot."

"It will once I return to D.C." Nadeer promised, and Mace narrowed his eyes intently. "Unless you have some paperwork from the U.N. I think it's time that you leave."

The 'protective services' standing around them all shifted their hands on their weapons, and the three agents glanced around. This was about to get messy, quickly. Daisy looked to Mace for instruction, and he pursed his lips thoughtfully. Then he shrugged, and turned around.

"Let's go." He announced casually, as if they'd been selling Girl Scout cookies and had been refused. Daisy blinked at him, and he gave her an urging look, holding his hand out toward the door.

"He's here," Simmons insisted as the three of them stepped out the front door.

"We don't _know_  that," Mace began to half-heartedly reason, but a gunshot from back inside the house interrupted him. "Okay, now we do." He figured.

Stepping through the gate, his hand inadvertently brushed against Daisy's and she sucked in a breath. The touch had been so brief that it only served to accentuate her own 'skin hunger', and she gritted her teeth. Now was _definitely_  not the time for this. The trio stopped walking and Daisy turned toward Mace.

"Go find Vijay," She told him. "I'll take care of them." And without waiting for his response she turned toward their two escort guards and took them out, managing to do so fairly easily since they were distracted by the Senator running back into the house, and not prepared for Daisy to attack. Mace and Simmons slipped by as she slammed one of the Watchdog's against the pillar, knocking him out.

She turned toward the next Watchdog that approached with a harried grin on her face, intent on taking out all of her lovesickness frustrations into attacking her enemy.

 

**\------**

 

The Quinjet was silent on their flight back to HQ. They all understood that Vijay had made his own decision to go with his sister, but it was still deeply disappointing.

Daisy sighed as she closed her eyes and leaned back into her seat. The lights were piercingly bright, and the humming of the plane's engines drilled through her skull uncomfortably. Her headache had turned into a full-blown migraine. Without thinking, she reached over to grasp Simmons' hand, needing some kind of physical contact to ease a bit of her pain.

Only by the skin-touch of one's soulmate could the effects of lovesickness truly be negated, but anyone could make a relatively okay alternative. At least the touch would hopefully downgrade her migraine to the low-level headache she'd been sporting for the past week.

"Simmons?" Mace's quiet concern made Daisy open her eyes slowly. He leaned forward in his seat, and put his hand on Simmons' knee supportively. Daisy looked over at her friend and realized she had a tear rolling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," Simmons apologized quickly, wiping her tear away and brushing her fingers against her jeans. "I'm sorry, I'll be fine."

"It's always tough when we lose one." Mace murmured understandingly. He looked a little guilty, as well, and Daisy figured it was because he'd been the one to connect Simmons to Vijay in the first place.

Simmons took a deep breath, and gave them both a careful smile. She squeezed Daisy's hand, and even patted the top of Mace's hand companionably. A little more assured, Mace slipped his hand off of her knee and sat back in his seat.

"Daisy? Are you feeling okay?" Simmons worried, still comfortably holding her friend's hand, but noting how out of character it was for her as of late.

"Just a..." Daisy swallowed and rolled her tongue around her mouth. It was uncomfortably dry. "Just a bit of a migraine. It'll pass." She spoke softly, her head back against her seat and her eyes closed again.

"I'll give you something for it when we get back." Simmons promised softly.

When they got back, though, Simmons made Daisy sit down in the lab and began taking some of her vitals.

"What - Simmons, it's just a headache, really," Daisy's argument sounded weak even to herself, though, and she relented after Simmons narrowed her eyes warningly.

"How long have you had the headache?" Simmons asked, in full-on doctor mode. "Not the migraine right now, but a headache?"

"I..." Daisy closed her eyes again, unable to keep them open in the sharp light of the room. "I don't know. It's been on and off."

"Clearly you are sensitive to light... though that could be explained by the migraine..." Simmons muttered thoughtfully. "How do you feel, physically? I know you've used your powers not long ago but can you describe before that? Aching joints? Tingling sensations? Curl your fingers for me - make a fist."

"Jemma..." Daisy opened her eyes, giving her friend a tired look. She knew what Simmons was asking about, and she didn't need to have the doctor's diagnosis. She kept her hands relaxed in her lap.

"Lovesickness." Simmons nodded slowly, looking at Daisy with an incredulous expression now. "And you _know_." She tilted her head to the side. "Why haven't you spent time with your soulmate? You are definitely within phase two now, and phase three gets very rough,"

"I _know_  what the phases of lovesickness are, Jemma," Daisy grouched quietly. "What I don't know is who my soulmate _is_."

"Oh." She looked surprised, and perplexed. "You don't? Is that... is that possible?"

"It was probably such a brief touch that I didn't realize it. Whatever emotions or thoughts we may have shared with one another may have been so similar that neither of us realized what had happened." Daisy shrugged, took a deep and slow breath, and massaged her fingers against the base of her neck.

"With your symptoms, the initial touch probably happened well over a month ago..." Simmons figured, as she fetched some high-dose pain pills from the cabinet. Daisy shrugged again, and nodded.

"It could be any number of people." Daisy snorted. "Fuck, it's probably some damn reporter."

"For their sake," Simmons raised her eyebrow, gently teasing her friend as she held out two pills and a glass of water, "let's hope not."


	3. Chapter 3

"This is what I'm going to be saying, if you want to see it," Mace offered, passing his tablet over to her. They were both sitting in the middle row of the SUV, on the way to the courthouse steps for his little speech officially explaining Daisy's status as an agent and not a vigilante. Coulson was driving, Mack was in the passenger seat, and Burrows sat in the back row behind them, his nose stuck in his phone as usual.

Daisy honestly wasn't sure if she would be able to read the screen; this morning she realized that she was starting to sporadically experience a bit of tunnel vision, and right now she was doing everything that she could mentally to fight off her vertigo. Having to stand outside for an indeterminate amount of time in front of a crowd of people and news anchors with cameras was _not_  the best time for her to be slipping into phase three. She'd probably be spending the entire event trying not to pass out.

Daisy sighed and took the tablet from Mace, figuring that she might as well have some warning before she had to stand there and deal with all the political shit.

She should have been paying more attention; grabbed for it more carefully.

Her fingers landed partially atop his, and the shock of it made her freeze, made the touch direct and lingering and all that was needed for her to know for sure. It wasn't just Mace's skin that she craved because he happened to be close by.

_Fuck_.

Feelings of anxiousness flooded through her, and her mind automatically questioned where they were coming from. A flash of an image of some kind of serum went across her thoughts, and she slowly turned her head toward Mace in shock. His eyes widened at her just as slowly, and she knew that he was feeling her surprise, and her betrayal.

He grabbed her wrist quickly before she could pull the tablet closer, pull away from him, and silently pleaded with her not to say anything to anyone, not yet. _Secret, secret, secret._

Not say anything about what, exactly? That they were apparently soulmates? That he was taking some kind of serum? That he wasn't really - dear God, he wasn't really...

He accidentally overwhelmed her with almost his entire story right then and there. It was a bit abstract, as shared thoughts tended to be, but she understood enough. The terror and shame during Vienna. The hope after being offered The Patriot project. The pride and deep desire to make a difference for Inhumans. His fear and worry at being found out by his most trusted agents. Surrounding all of it, his intense desire to be a part of something, and his deep-seeded fear of rejection.

His confusion, and something like dismay, that Daisy is the one he's irrevocably connected to.

At that final wave of disjointed emotion and thought, she wrenched her hand from his grip, curling her lip at him in disgust. There was so much for her to be angry and hurt about toward him that she was overwhelmed with her own emotions, not to mention the addition of his. Her mind and heart were swirling and for once it had nothing to do with her vertigo.

She ducked her face down toward the tablet in her hands, pretending to be intently focused on his speech, as she leaned her body against her door in an effort to put as much space between herself and Mace as the vehicle would allow.

She bit the inside of her cheek harshly in anger that, even with the proverbial bomb that was just dropped on her, much of the pain and sensitivity in her body had ebbed away. That proof was the final nail in the coffin.

Jeffrey-fucking-Mace was her soulmate.

"Pulling up on location now," Coulson announced into his comms, jarring her focus toward the event at hand.

All of that had happened within just a few moments, and while Daisy no longer felt like upchucking was imminent because of lovesickness, she felt nauseous for different reasons. Without looking, she pressed Mace's tablet down atop the seat between them, quickly tucking her hand back into her lap before he could even think about touching her again. If he even wanted to. By his mostly horrified reaction, she highly doubted it.

Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, she noted that he too was tucking himself against his side of the car as much as he could, his fist clenched tightly atop his knee, his lips pressed together firmly.

 

**\------**

 

She knew she had an uncomfortable smile on her face, but it was the best that she could do. As Mace spoke into the microphone, her mind roiled over what she'd discovered in the SUV. Judging the time in her head, she figured that they must've connected during their first unintentional media moment. She'd been so overwhelmed and exhausted after containing all of the earthquakes that she hadn't even noticed when his fingers had sparked against hers. Even with their gloves on, they must've brushed skin at some point, because it wasn't too long after that she'd started experiencing phase one of lovesickness.

_Mace/Johnson 2020_? Ugh, she felt like barfing again when she caught sight of the hand-crafted sign in a supporter's hands. Still, there was something kind of nice about having a crowd of people cheering for you, instead of cheering for your arrest...

"Sniper! Get down!" Daisy's training kicked in before she fully registered the reflection of sunlight on the roof, and she pushed Ms. Caldwell behind the pillar, covering her with her body as she turned to keep an eye on the situation.

Mace stepped in front of her and picked up the podium, holding it up like a shield in front of all three of them. The bullet slammed into the wood at head-level, and Daisy flinched automatically, but was relieved when it didn't seem to puncture through the podium and into Mace. Her relief quickly ebbed when a drilling sound emanated from the podium, and sparks flew all over the place from the bullet hole.

"Stand clear!" Mace warned everyone, and reared back to chuck the podium up into the air as far as he could throw it. A couple of feet up it exploded, raining down shreds of paper and splinters of wood, and once again he shielded the women with his body.

Daisy kept her eyes up, though, and pushed around him. She'll thank him later. Maybe.

Her hand accidentally brushed against his again, and she was filled with a burst of adrenalin that only further heightened her own. It was overwhelming, but she had a job to do.

"I've got eyes on the shooter," She informed everyone on comms, trying to catch her breath as she kept her eyes on the suspect. She pushed her way through the scrambling crowd, not paying anyone else any attention as she allowed all the extra adrenalin pumping through her to flow through her gauntlets.

_Damn_ , what a rush.

She almost overshot her target, though it worked out in the end when she landed right on top of him. He collapsed to the ground and she quickly steadied on her feet, ready with a fist to knock him out if further action was necessary.

The engines of the Quinjet drew her attention, and she glanced up to watch it take to the air and fly off. She furrowed her brow as she watched it quickly disappear beyond the tree line.

The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was her fucking soulmate. And he'd just almost been assassinated.

_Fuck_. It was never just one problem at a time, was it?

 

**\------**

 

Daisy felt remnants of Mace's underlying fear rising up within her, and she scowled deeply. Reminding herself that he was a damn liar, she pushed all of the soulmate crap down as far as it could go. At least now, after her conversation with Fitz and Simmons, she took comfort in that she wasn't the only one who knew the truth about the Patriot.

Whether it was sheer dumb luck, or some kind of fate, their Quinjet was pointed in the right direction to see a huge explosion in the heavily wooded area. The pilot sounded over comms to relay what he was seeing, and Daisy shared a look with May. Sure enough, just a moment later the computer was able to lock on to the coordinates of Mace's Patriot suit.

"Go tell the pilot to fly us over! I'll help them while you guys find a place to land!" Daisy suggested, and May nodded, heading for the cockpit while Daisy moved toward the back of the plane.

Gunfire reached her ears over the rushing wind as the ramp lowered, and she noted at least a handful of armed men surrounding the ranger station beneath them. She didn't hesitate a moment longer before jumping out of the plane, using her powers to soften her landing. The rumbling ground alerted the other soldiers to her presence, and those within the nearest vicinity dove for cover. As if that would help them.

One of the men closest to the cabin turned his gun toward her, and she proceeded to fling him through the window of the building, stepping determinedly after through the doorway she'd created. Coulson and Mace were ducked behind an overturned table, both looking shocked and amazed to see her. She was relieved to see them alive, but noted the man missing.

"Where's Mack?" She asked, catching her breath.

"Outside, somewhere. He took care of the communications truck." Coulson explained, rising to his feet and helping Mace up as well. Daisy eyeballed the Director, annoyed by the super-suit she used to find rather impressive. From an Inhuman-to-Inhuman standpoint, only, of course. But now, knowing that he wasn't really Inhuman... the sight just heightened her distaste for him.

She turned on her heel and led the way out of the ranger station, her anger abating to relief when she saw Mack and May step out from the storage garage across the drive. They both looked a little beat up, much like Coulson and Mace, but they were alive.

"Mission accomplished." Daisy said into her comms, relaying back to base. "On our way home."

Coulson smiled at her terminology, but Daisy avoided his expression. She'd said it out of habit. She wasn't so sure that HQ felt like home to her, anymore, and with how trapped she was feeling there lately? More so, now that she was irrevocably tied to Mace? It was feeling more like a prison.

 

**\------**

 

"Give us the room," Coulson requested of Daisy and Mack, who picked up on his tone and nodded without question, closing the door to the Director's office behind them. " _Really_ , Glenn?" Coulson's annoyance rang out before the door fully closed, and Mack shared a look with his old partner.

"It's not often I see Coulson truly pissed." Mack commented, and Daisy raised her eyebrows and nodded again.

"I get it, though." She heaved a sigh and leaned against the wall opposite the office door. They couldn't hear what was going on inside, as it was soundproofed, but she wanted to be nearby. She _had_  to talk to Mace about... 'their thing'. Before he let it slip to anyone else.

"You want a drink?" Mack offered, gesturing down the hall toward the staircase. Daisy gave him a gentle smile.

"Maybe later? I still need to talk with the Director about some things."

"Try not to hurt him too much, okay? He did already get shot." Mack gave her a wry grin.

"This Inhuman thing..." She shook her head. "It's messed up." But it wasn't nearly the most messed up thing between them right now. Mack patted her shoulder and trudged away, rolling his neck a little. He was probably pretty sore from his fight with the Watchdogs, and Daisy wanted nothing more than to share a drink and maybe play a game or two of Call of Duty with her friend. That would have to happen later, though.

Barely a minute later, Talbot stepped out of the office with a grumbling expression. Daisy raised her eyebrow a little, and he shook his head.

"Can't believe he's taking Phil's side," Talbot pouted to himself. "What're they soulmates or something?" He scoffed and stepped away, ignoring Daisy almost entirely as he headed down the hall and disappeared around the corner. Previously, Daisy would've made a comment in agreement, but not now. She knew who Mace's soulmate was, and that thought made her pale a little.

A few minutes later the door handle shifted again, and Daisy straightened up off the wall. It turned back to it's normal position without opening, though, and Daisy raised her eyebrow higher at that. Just as she considered knocking, the door opened revealing Mace standing there looking deeply ashamed with himself. Glancing over his shoulder, Daisy saw Coulson was standing in front of the Director's desk, his arms folded across his chest.

"Come in, Daisy. Jeffrey has something he'd like to tell you." Coulson announced, and it wasn't a request.

For a wild moment, Daisy wondered if Mace had told Coulson about being her soulmate. Considering her options within the time it took her to take three steps up to the doorway and then passed Mace, she reached out and gripped his wrist, making sure to touch skin beneath his jacket and shirt cuff.

_Secret._

He was staring at her wide-eyed, again, and she was getting nothing from him but worry in return. He wasn't thinking about soulmates right now. She pursed her lips and dropped her hand from him, entering the room fully and propping her hands on her hips as she stood near Coulson. Coulson gave Mace a pointed look, and the injured man sighed deeply as he closed the office door once more, and shuffled a bit closer with his crutch.

"Thank you for finding us. For saving us. You are amazing," Mace told her seriously.

"And you're a liar." Daisy interrupted in the same tone of voice, not wanting to hear him start buttering her up for whatever reason he may have. "I mean, I always knew you were a liar on some level - what politician isn't - but _this_?" She huffed an unamused laugh. "This is just - I can't _believe_  you would lie like _this_. Just when I was starting to think that maybe you were okay," She angrily took a step closer to him, and he dropped his head slightly, taking her words. He knew he deserved them.

It hurt all the worse because this was the man that she was supposed to be soul-connected to. Even if she didn't know him all that well, the betrayal cut into her more deeply than it might have normally. You couldn't just toss away a defunct soulmate and find a new one. It didn't work that way. True soulmates (or 'The Skin-Touched' if you wanted to be old-school about it) lived for each other. It was a one and done kind of thing. To her knowledge it usually ended up that people’s faults complimented one another; that’s how the whole thing worked out. Your soulmate was supposed to be your person in the world who’s puzzle piece fit with yours. She had a hard time seeing how this was in her favor, though; she was stuck with this smug guy in a suit who lied to all the people he claimed to care about.

Coulson stood quietly in front of the desk, giving them some space but keeping an eye on them. Daisy was still more than an arm's length away from Mace, but that didn't mean anything. She wouldn't use her powers of course - she wasn't _that_  angry yet - but she wasn't so sure she wouldn't punch or slap Mace silly. Coulson, knowing her well, no doubt sensed that in her.

Mace still had that same, horribly sorry expression on his face that he'd adopted ever since they'd all climbed aboard the Quinjet and left the Ranger station.

"You told me that you were like me. You _used_  that to earn my trust." Daisy scolded Mace. Coulson looked at Mace, maybe waiting for him to return that he'd used that lie to earn _everyone's_  trust, but he didn't open his mouth. Coulson looked mildly surprised by that. "You're just a fraud. An _insult_  to -"

"Daisy." Coulson quietly interrupted her, and she furrowed her brow at him. "That's enough." He suggested, just as quietly, though the serious look in his eyes did make her pause.

"Well," She said with finality toward Mace, "I'm not bailing your ass out again, so you might want to start hitting the mats."

Coulson finally leaned off the desk, moving closer to them.

"You will, actually, be bailing his ass out again should it ever be required," Coulson's voice took on that bossy tone that he always used to get shit done. "He's your Director, Daisy,"

" _What_? Are you kidding?" She exclaimed, getting riled up again. "After all that -"

"Yes, after all that." Coulson paused, and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "At least, he'll be the Director that everyone sees." Coulson looked toward Mace now, who'd raised his head slightly to meet his gaze. "Why don't you tell her what you told me?" Coulson suggested, and Mace pursed his lips.

"She won't believe me." He replied, glancing at Daisy, who made a face that clearly said 'damn straight'.

"Why don't you tell her anyway?" Coulson returned pointedly, and Mace sighed.

"I'm sorry." He started, looking directly at Daisy now. She folded her arms across her chest, raising her eyebrow to pointedly ask him to continue. "I'm sorry that I lied about being an Inhuman. And I'm sure the words probably mean nothing but _please_  believe me when I say that I never meant any harm, or insult, to you, or any Inhumans. I want to help," He looked at her earnestly. "I've only ever wanted to help. They told me that this was how I could."

"They?" Daisy repeated, and glanced toward Coulson. He gave her a look, one that she recognized. "Talbot," She frowned, narrowing her eyes. Mace blinked at her.

"You two really don't like him, do you?" He wondered, mostly rhetorically.

"He has his moments." Coulson shrugged.

"Rarely," Daisy muttered, then focused back on Mace. "So, what, you're saying you were put up to this?" She asked, and Mace shook his head.

"No... no, I did willingly agree to do it. If it wasn't me they probably would have found somebody else eventually." Daisy blinked at him, looking at him quietly for a long moment.

"Even if all you wanted to do was help, this was still a bad decision. And very, very stupid." She scolded him. "You want to help?" She asked Mace, and he nodded emphatically. "Then you do what Coulson says. He wasn't so good at the politics, but he's a smart Director. A great leader."

"I know." Mace smiled just slightly, glancing toward Coulson, who looked uncomfortable with the praise, but touched. Daisy wasn't sure what to think about that. They were fond of one another, that was obvious. And even now knowing that she was his soulmate, if Mace had fallen in love with someone else, first... someone like Coulson...

She couldn't think about that right now. One problem at a time.

"And you're getting training. Even if I'm still obligated to bail you out, if you _ever_  put Coulson and Mack in danger like that again,"

"Hey," Coulson protested, "We can handle ourselves just fine, thank you." Daisy knew that; that wasn't the point. She continued on as if Coulson hadn't interjected,

"You're going to learn how to fight. Like a Director Level agent _should_  know. And you're going to train with me." Daisy informed Mace. He blinked at her, wide-eyed. He almost looked scared, for second. She understood that.

Interacting with ones soulmate, in the first few months of knowing them, could get... overwhelming. All of the sharing of thoughts and emotions were always difficult to handle in the beginning. However, the two of them needed to work out something where they could be in contact with one another but not raise suspicion. Training was the perfect excuse, and they wouldn't need to spend anymore time with one another than what was absolutely necessary.

"If you think I don't respect you, or something, trust me - I have nothing but respect for you," He started, and Daisy smirked, shaking her head and relaxing her arms by her sides. She couldn't help but rib him,

"This isn't about that. I know- I mean come on, I _saw_  your face when I burst into the cabin." Her smirk grew when both Coulson and Mace blushed slightly. She'd seen _both_  of their faces. "I'm assuming you don't want anyone else to know about 'The Patriot'. Don't you think your sparring partner will know pretty quickly that you don't actually have super strength?" Her eyebrow quirked upward again.

"The gym isn't exactly a private place," Mace muttered, shifting his feet, leaning a little more heavily on the cane. He'd made his words sound as if he were ashamed of his fighting ability, but Daisy figured it had more to do with the soulmate thing. "What about my leg?" Mace added, gesturing toward himself. Daisy pursed her lips, looking down at the injury.

"We can wait a week before we begin."

" _A week_? I was _shot_!" He exclaimed. She furrowed her brow, lips still pursed as she stared thoughtfully at his leg. He looked like he wanted to shift his weight again but knew that would hurt, so he settled with opening and closing his fist around the handle of the crutch.

"Well, we'll start with PT then. I'll ask Simmons everything we need to do to get you walking normally again." Daisy decided, and Mace gave her a confused look. She rolled her eyes at him. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still very pissed off that you lied to us. But...well, I'm glad you didn't die out there."

She stepped closer, unable to help herself. They'd just touched when she entered the room but instead of easing the side-effects of lovesickness, it only increased her desire to touch him again. To rest her hands on either side of his face, and press her forehead against his own. To breathe the same air as he was.

She blinked and breathed in deeply, appalled with herself, and tugged her focus back under her control.

"Why are you helping me?" Mace wondered quietly, and she imagined it was probably rhetorical. She knew that he was feeling for her much of the same things that she was feeling for him. It was out of their control.

"Because," She replied, looking thoughtfully toward Coulson before turning her gaze to Mace. "Coulson still trusts you. And I trust him, so. I'm willing to give you another chance." She sent Mace a very direct expression, and he nodded gratefully. She stretched her fingers out by her sides, feeling how they shook. It had nothing to do with her powers.

Mace's eyes darted down to her hands, noticing her gesture, and he tightened his grip around the handle of his crutch again.

"Phil? Do you mind giving us a moment, please? Now that we know she won't kill me," Mace glanced at Daisy with hesitant amusement, and she folded her arms across her chest.

"Debatable." She replied. Coulson looked unsure.

"Coulson." Mace looked more directly at the other man. "Daisy is right. I lied to her about being a part of - about being one of her people. I lied about something incredibly important and I just..." He turned his gaze back toward her. "I'd like to talk it out."

"We can talk." Daisy agreed primly, knowing they probably wouldn't be talking much about Inhumans once Coulson left the room. She hid her hands within the crooks of her elbows; her fingers wouldn’t stop shaking. Their skin-touch in the car notwithstanding, her lovesickness had not gone away. She needed to deal with it before someone else other than Simmons found out.

"Okay..." Coulson agreed dubiously, giving them both a look as he stepped around Mace and opened the door, closing it gently behind him.

Daisy and Mace stood in silence for a moment, not quite looking at each other.

"Phase three." He whispered, because he knew. He was suffering, too. "It usually requires - "

"I know what phase three requires." Daisy hissed angrily. He pressed his lips together, a hurt expression flashing across his face before he could school his features. "You don't get to," She began, and then cut herself off. That wasn’t actually fair to him; he couldn’t control being her soulmate any more than she could. Growling in frustration, she pushed her fingers through her hair and paced over toward the coffee table and chairs over by the large screen on the wall. After a moment, she turned and gestured toward him with a lift of her chin. "Take off your jacket, and roll up your sleeve."

He looked curious, but did as she asked, anyway. She thinned her lips as she looked at him. Her empathy was warring against her anger as she watched him carefully prop his crutch against the wall and settle his weight on his good leg before shrugging out of his jacket. It made her annoyed with herself.

She resolutely stepped closer to him and reached her hand out for his jacket, and he noticeably flinched. She gave him a dry look.

"I'm not gonna Quake you. Tempting as it is."

He blushed, chagrined, but handed off his jacket before then unbuttoning the cuff of his sleeve and rolling it up to his elbow. She set his jacket atop the conference table, and counted to three before forcing herself to calm down and face him again. Coulson probably wouldn't be too happy with her if she Quaked him.

Mace didn't make any movement of his own as she reached for his hand, her fingers brushing against his knuckles. He watched, holding his breath, as she slid her hand up his forearm, grasping his inner arm in a gesture like a fond handshake. She used her other hand to guide his fingers around her own forearm, mirroring the gesture.

It wasn't really a ton of skin-touch, but it was the most they'd done yet. Daisy couldn't help her small gasp of surprise as she was overwhelmed by a swirl of pain, shame, embarrassment, a bit of self-righteousness, appreciation, and amazement.

There was a definable difference in the aching of her joints as their skin-touch lingered, and that relief was overwhelming in it's own right. Then, she remembered the relief she'd felt when he'd supported her after the Morrow fight. She mentally kicked herself. It was so obvious, now.

"You're annoyed with yourself about something." Mace noted thoughtfully, and she looked up from their clasped arms to find him looking at her, his brow furrowed.

"My soulmate is a lying prick." She snarked. "Of course I'm annoyed."

He winced. She'd hurt him with that; she could see it on his face and feel it through their touch. She couldn't decide between satisfaction or guilt, that he was hurting as well as she.

They stood in silence for another minute, avoiding one another's eyes studiously as emotions swirled around them. Both of them felt incredibly uncomfortable, but they both also knew that this was necessary. They needed to keep their lovesickness as low as possible so other people didn't find out about them.

"Hell," Daisy sighed, and he glanced at her.

"What?"

"It's hard to stay pissed at someone when you know exactly what they're feeling, and a bit of what they're thinking." She admitted, and he gave her a small understanding smile. "This annoys you, too."

"We don't exactly get along." He pointed out, raising his brow.

"Maybe we were getting there," Daisy admitted, her eyes once more pointed toward their clasped arms. "We did work well together... when we worked _together_."

"I didn't _enjoy_  hiding the truth from you. From any of you! But those were my orders. When your country calls, you answer." He was fiercely proud to do anything that he could for his country - Daisy could feel that. It was intense. It was the main force behind many of his decisions. "I'm sorry that I hurt you." He whispered, and he brushed the pad of his thumb against her skin. "It's worse, because of our... connection. _I know_." He could feel her betrayal, and she could feel the way that he ached to make it up to her. To make her feel better.

She slipped her arm away from his, and took a half-step back. They both sucked in a sharp breath at the loss of contact, but Daisy couldn't take it anymore. She opened herself up to very few people in this world, and here she was revealing herself to this man that wasn't even exactly her friend, and she had no control over it. Ten minutes of contact wasn't nearly enough to completely rid them of the lovesickness now that they were in phase three; she felt fatigued, still, and her skin ached to continue to be against his, but she ignored that. The worst of her symptoms had abated somewhat, and she could sense that they had for Mace, as well. She grabbed his crutch for him and handed it back to him, though he was distracted as he accepted it from her.

"I'll see you later. Get some rest." She tried to speak kindly, before leaving him alone in his office.

She wanted to be royally mad at him, to rage and fight and make him earn her forgiveness back. Most of her anger had faded, though. While she didn't agree with the choices that had been made, she understood his position. She could see that he'd been trying to do the right thing in the midst of a ridiculous situation. And while the path to hell was paved with good intentions... She'd already forgiven him.

She had no idea whether it was because of her own God-given empathy, or whether it was because he was her soulmate. And _that_  sense of lack of control frustrated her.


	4. Chapter 4

"Have you figured it out, yet?" Simmons wondered lowly, leaning across the tabletop so no one else in the lounge would overhear their conversation. "Your soulmate?"

"What?" Daisy furrowed her brow in distaste for the topic, and took a long drink from her glass of wine. "Don't worry about it, it's fine." She waved her hand in the air and glanced over toward the television, where Mack and Coulson were currently teaching Elena their self-proclaimed tips and tricks for Call of Duty.

"Don't worry about it?" Simmons repeated incredulously. "Daisy, you should be well within phase three at this point, and... honestly, you don't seem to be. What are you doing to mitigate the symptoms? Because I know I'm sure as hell not prescribing you anything - you haven't come to me for medication."

"I don't _need_  medication," Daisy gritted her teeth, hiding her left hand atop her lap as she took another sip of wine. Her joints ached something fierce, but she didn't want to draw Simmons' attention to it. She was in the later stages of phase two, since she'd lost her gumption and didn't stay with Mace long enough the last time.

"Wine is not a substitute for pain meds, Daisy." Simmons informed her, raising her eyebrow at her friend. "And it is especially not recommended if you are dealing with the nausea or tunnel vision that comes with phase three."

"But it _is_  recommended when boys are dumb and you just need a girl's night with your best friend - is it not?" Daisy pointed out in a mutter, and Simmons leaned forward again, her eyes alight and zeroed in on something.

"You know who it is." Simmons noted, and Daisy blinked, briefly startled as the quick drink of wine did indeed make her slightly more lightheaded for a moment. Granted, that had been her intention. Maybe she should have figured out how to keep her mouth shut beforehand, though...

"It doesn't matter, Jemma," Daisy insisted, vaguely waving her hand in the air again before once more reaching for her glass. She could feel the weight of Simmons' silent gaze as she watched her for a minute.

"I know them, don't I?" She figured, and Daisy sighed heavily.

"I really don't want to talk about it." She replied honestly, and more gently. Simmons' gaze softened at Daisy's tone, and she nodded. She reached forward to tap the edge of her wine glass against Daisy's, and they shared a smile. Daisy could see that Simmons was worried - possibly even more so, now - but she didn't continue to press and Daisy appreciated that.

Daisy wanted nothing more than to confide in her best friend, but everyone was still trying to figure out how to deal with Mace since the Patriot Project had come to light. She wasn't ready to deal with the questions or the curious looks or anything else that would come with her revealing the connection she had with him.

 

**\------**

 

“I don’t know about this...” Mace trailed off, giving her a hesitant look. Daisy pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest.

“You need to train. And we need to,” She glanced around the gym, but they were as alone as they had been when they first walked in. “Touch.”

He blushed.

“This is the best way to handle our... issue discreetly, and you know it.” She added.

“So you really don’t want anyone to know.” He mused softly, and she raised her eyebrow.

“You do?” She pointed out, and he grimaced.

“No.” He eventually said. “Regardless of the inability to control who one's soulmate is, Nadeer would use this against us. She would use it against S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“All right then. So we tell no one.” She gestured at him, and stepped onto the mats.

“We tell no one.” He agreed, and moved opposite her.

“I’ll take it easy on you, at first, okay? I don’t expect you to fight like a trained agent yet. That’s the point of this. ...One of the points of this.” The both of them were wearing padded gloves, and she lifted her palms up about shoulder level. "Let's start with basic punches. Left, right, duck to the right." He slowly gestured through the movements, and she nodded. "Yeah, roll your shoulders like - I mean, you've seen Rocky, right?"

"I've seen Rocky." He promised wryly, and she shrugged.

"I don't know how much of a tight-ass you are,"

"I watch movies!" He protested. She smirked at him, and he furrowed his brow, almost pouting at her.

"Keep attention on your leg, okay?" She advised, getting them back into focus on training. She needed to stay focused on their training. Otherwise... Otherwise, she'd get too distracted by how naked his neck looked in that t-shirt collar. Again.

So much skin available for her fingers.

"Some pain needs to be pushed through, but if it's seriously hurting or there's anything sharp, let me know." Daisy informed him as she shoved her startlingly intimate thoughts far into the back of her mind. Phase three could go fuck itself. "The last thing we need is to undo all the work of physical therapy."

He nodded in agreement, and put his fists up again,

"Alright, let's go."

Their first day fight training together actually wasn't so bad. The few times that their skin touched, she noted that he was focused entirely on doing well; moving correctly, making sure that his form was good. Honestly, she was a little surprised by his focus. His symptoms were, after all, just as bad as hers. She was comforted to know that he could keep himself in control around her even when his body had to be screaming at him to touch her.

"You know," She said when they were taking a quick water break, "it's okay to suck right now. It takes time to learn these things. Nothing but continuous practice will get your body remembering this stuff like second nature."

"I know," He returned defensively.

"You're thinking too much." She explained a little more gently. "Just focus on the small things. Are your fingers tucked properly? Is your wrist straight? Are you hitting your target? We'll get to the footwork and putting power behind the punches later."

He nodded, looking less defensive, and rolled his shoulders as he tossed his water bottle aside.

"Okay, let's go," He announced energetically, and she grinned. She'd bet money that he wouldn't be so eager three days from now, when his body was sore and he remembered that he didn't like waking up at five in the morning.

Maybe this situation wasn't so bad after all; maybe they could manage the side effects and just not have to worry about anything else that came with being soulmates.

She silently told herself that, but her eyes were busy watching the way sweat glistened against the dip of his throat.

 

**\------**

 

Later that morning, Mace called a meeting in his office, discussing what to do to clear up the mixed signals the public was receiving about Daisy's status as an agent.

"We have to show the world who she really is," Coulson reasoned. He meant well, Daisy knew that, but maybe she didn't _want_  the world to know who she really was. There was honestly only one reason that she agreed to this plan in the first place.

"And it's well past time." Talbot agreed. "Daisy now represents S.H.I.E.L.D. Everything has to be above board."

"But marching into the Capitol building so Daisy can sign the Sokovia Accords?" Simmons, sitting next to Daisy's right, argued on her behalf. "Senator Nadeer will be there. It seems risky."

"We're all aware of the dangers," Mace assured Simmons. "Some of us more than others."

Daisy would've kicked him under the table, if the damn ridiculous thing wasn't clear glass. At least it seemed everyone had assumed he'd been thinking of his own near-death at the hands of Nadeer, and not his concern for Daisy. Daisy could see his hands through the top of the table; they were resting calmly in his lap, but he was fiddling with his fingers too much. It was making _her_  fiddle, too.

"I'm fine with it, Jemma." Daisy promised, trying to move quickly beyond Mace's comment, carding her fingers together and squeezing them briefly to urge herself to be still. They'd done so well during their sparring session this morning, but phase three was a bitch, and it was incessantly niggling at the both of them.

"Are you?" Simmons didn't sound so sure. "It doesn't seem like you."

Yeah, well, she hasn't felt like herself for the past month or so, so...

"And Coulson, you're letting her - it doesn't seem like you, either." Simmons pointed out.

Coulson pursed his lips as he listened to her, and then glanced at Daisy.

"With Nadeer and her staff in the meeting," Coulson admitted, "we have an opportunity."

"What opportunity?" Talbot jumped on that suspiciously. "I wasn't briefed on any opportunity."

"While Nadeer's in with Daisy," Coulson explained with a hesitant glance toward Mace. When the three of them had planned this, they knew that Talbot wouldn't love it. "Yo-Yo and I will get into her office and plant surveillance."

"We can finally keep an eye on her, figure out her next move." Daisy added.

"What?" Talbot exclaimed. "No. No! There will be no 'planting'. No eyeing. No yo-yoing. S.H.I.E.L.D. is now legitimate. We have to remain above reproach."

"You mean like juicing our Director so he can pretend to be Inhuman?" Coulson sniped, and Talbot gave him a look. Daisy glanced at Mace, who'd dropped his eyes and made a face like he agreed that Coulson had a point. "Look, we were reacting to the situation we had. You put Jeffrey in place, I understand. We're S.H.I.E.L.D. We have to be proactive."

"This is politics, Phil." Talbot reminded as if any of them needed reminding. "Which means politicians. They are a festering cess-pool of toxic waste fires. You swim in those waters, you get pulled under."

Daisy had no idea what that meant, exactly, but it certainly painted a visual.

"The Director can handle it." Coulson said confidently. "We'll handle the rest. May, you with us?" Coulson wondered, looking over to his left. She'd been curiously more quiet than usual, during this whole discussion. Daisy was startled to find that May was staring straight at her, an inscrutable expression on her face.

"Always." She assured Coulson, giving them a nod. It was official, then - Talbot was out voted. The plan would proceed as they'd figured it.

When the Director dismissed everyone, Daisy hung back, and waited for the two of them to be alone. If May had noticed anything about Daisy or Mace, and suspected something, she thankfully didn’t hang around. Mace shifted uncomfortably when Daisy didn't say anything, and put his hand onto the table to push himself up into standing position. Before she could chicken out, Daisy quickly rested her palm atop the back of his hand, and his eyes immediately darted up to meet hers. She could feel how fearful and uncomfortable he felt about their soulmate situation, on top of everything else they were dealing with.

But there was also satisfaction there, and an ease that only increased as the touch continued. The relief was so paramount that Mace actually released a soft whimper, and Daisy shifted immediately, moving too quickly for him to protest or for her to second-guess her decision. She grabbed both of his hands as she stood, tugging to get him to stand as well, and then pulled him closer to her.

His mouth opened but whatever he was going to say died on his lips as she guided his hands beneath her shirt, and pressed them firmly against the bare skin of her waist. She held him there, for a moment, giving him a stern look that silently warned him not to move his hands anywhere else. His mouth closed again and he swallowed, and then gave her a small, almost imperceptible, nod.

Her fingers fumbled quickly with the knot of his tie and she tugged it loose just enough to unbutton the first two buttons at his collar.

"Daisy?" He wondered in alarm, though he stood frozen exactly how she'd placed him, even as she pushed his collar away from his neck.

"Shut up," She ordered, annoyed more with herself than with him. If they were going to make it through this hearing without giving away their connection, then they needed to deal with their lovesickness; at least take it down to phase one.

She slid a hand around to the nape of his neck, and then pressed her cheek against his jaw, tucking her face against the side of his neck. He flinched, again, and his fingers tightened around her waist, but he otherwise didn't move.

Daisy wanted to moan with relief as she could literally feel her nausea and the aching in her joints fade away. Mace's thumbs brushed against her skin, but he otherwise kept his hands where she'd placed them, so she let him continue. It felt amazing, anyway. Amazing in a way that she wasn't sure she could explain.

It was more than just the release from pain of the lovesickness, it was a... sense of rightness. That this rather intimate hug was exactly where she should be right now. That thought set her on edge - Mace was still in the process of redeeming himself and there was still so much about him that irked her.

But also... he was her soulmate. They were forever connected in a profound sense that scientists still were trying and failing to completely explain. Hell - while she was being honest, it felt good even to just stand next to him during the day-to-day. This, now? His warm, strong hands against her waist, his pulse beating against her cheek, his scent filling her nose - this was _scary good_.

She wanted to tilt her head just a fraction more, and press her mouth against the curve of his neck. She wanted to suck on his skin until there was a mark that would be later hidden beneath his collar. A mark only the two of them would know about. Another shared secret.

"Daisy," His broken, longing whisper jerked her back into focus, and she realized how carried away her thoughts had gotten. Thoughts that he, no doubt, had received bits and pieces of.

Daisy only managed another few seconds before she pulled herself away and out of his grasp, turning and leaving the office without saying another word to him. She didn't even look at his face before disappearing into the hall, because she knew if she had, they would both have done something they'd later regret. ...Probably regret.

"Definitely bad, Daisy," She hissed to herself as she headed toward the stairs and down into the main part of the base. They weren't together. They weren't a couple. He was her boss. The Director, no less. Wild spontaneous office make-outs were definitely bad.

Daisy mentally kicked herself and hoped to God that the lingering side effect of shared thoughts and feelings had drifted away before Mace caught her thinking of that.

She realized that she could feel a pleasure and amusement that wasn't exactly her own, and her face flushed red.

"Hey, Daisy." Coulson greeted her from the kitchen, noticing her as she passed through the lounge. He furrowed his brow as he took a second look at her expression. "You okay?"

"Fine," She mumbled, ducking her head as she tried to will her blush away. Mace was surprised, and aroused, too. He'd definitely caught at least a brief idea of what she'd been imagining as she'd left his office. On a whim, she sent a sharp mental thought out into the void and hoped he could still sense it,

_Focus on the damn hearing._

The _last_  thing they needed was the inability to keep their hands off of one another while sitting in front of Senator Nadeer and an entire board of judges deciding whether or not she could be trusted as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

**\------**

 

Daisy stepped into the courtroom, noted the amount of people gathered to witness, and took a deep breath. Mace finally appeared behind her, and he touched his hand against her back briefly, supportively. He didn't touch her skin, but she could still feel the heat through her suit jacket.

"How are you holding up?" He asked her as he moved to sit down. "It's okay to be nervous, you know." She gave him a brief warning look at his gesture but then put on a smirk to hide it, as she walked around the table to sit beside him.

"Me? Nah, I don't get nervous anymore." And it was mostly true, too. The only thing she was nervous about was somehow accidentally revealing to the whole room - and subsequently to _the world_  - that this man next to her was her soulmate.

Her soulmate, who most definitely seemed nervous.

"Okay." He mused as they settled into their seats. "I'm just saying... if you are." He gestured his hand vaguely in the air, and then rested it atop the table between them.

"I mean, it's not my comfort zone, but I'm good." She promised him truthfully, giving him a nod. He nodded as well, and tucked his hand into his lap. They didn't need to skin-touch for her to know that he wanted an excuse to touch her again; he was making it pretty obvious to her. "I'll just tell the truth." She was feeding off of his nervous energy and it was irking her. "I'm good at that. You?" She snarked, pursing her lips a little bit.

They looked at one another, and he gave her rueful expression, and then looked down at the table in front of him.

"You don't talk much about your childhood, do you?" He mentioned after a moment, lifting his gaze back toward her. She couldn't help but tense slightly, defensively, at the change in topic. Where was he going with this? "The foster homes. Bouncing around. I imagine a lot of time you felt like you had to perform to convince people to like you." Daisy blinked at him, unsettled by the directness of his gaze, annoyed by the topic he'd brought up.

"Only the places I wanted to stay. Why are you asking me - "

"Because if you enter every room," He interrupted her gently, turning his body more toward hers, "thinking you gotta do a song and dance, eventually _everything_  becomes a performance. And believe me... I know how it feels, putting on an act full time." He settled back into his seat correctly, giving her a deeply understanding look.

He wasn't just talking about her closed-off 'Quake' persona, and he wasn't just talking about his gregarious 'Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.' persona. She realized, in that moment, that he'd suspected something. Who knew for exactly how long - but before their touch-moment in the SUV, before his speech and assassination attempt - he'd suspected that she was his soulmate. And he'd been hiding his lovesickness just as much as she had. She'd forgotten, honestly - a bit ironically even - that she hadn't been the only one suffering through the side-effects.

"Yeah." She murmured in realization. "You do, don't you."

"Anyway," He let out a breath, probably pushing away the heavy emotion he felt the same as she. "I know it's not an act, with you." He told her sincerely. "Coulson's been saying since day one that you're the real deal, and I've learned to trust his read on people." He shifted in his seat. The other things that he knew, the ways that he knew them, that went without saying. "So."

Daisy glanced over at him from the corner of her eye, admittedly touched by his words. And somehow it seemed fitting that Coulson was a thing that they had in common.

"He believed in me before I believed in myself." Daisy admitted, looking over at Mace. He turned his head to meet her eye, probably surprised by her verbal openness. "You too, you know." She added, and he smiled a quick little grin that made his eyes crinkle in the corners. She had to look away, because his pleased expression made her feel a little too warm. "It's why he wants you with us still. He keeps saying that you were trying to do the right thing," She powered through her somewhat distracted thoughts.

"Oh, you've talked about it, huh?" He sounded half-teasing, half-worried.

"Sure." Daisy replied, and the unsure expression he made afterwards as he looked back at the desk made her realize that he might've thought she'd talked to Coulson about _them_ , about their connection. "And listen," She added a bit awkwardly, wanting him to understand at least a little bit of what she was feeling, "with me, sometimes it's... sometimes I think it's an act." She wasn't nearly as always sure of herself as she portrayed herself to be.

Mace seemed to understand exactly what she was getting at, even with her half-assed sentence. He gave her a small, sure smile.

"You've got this." He told her seriously, intently.

Just briefly, his hand drifted over to where hers rested against her leg, his pinkie finger brushing against the side of her palm before he rested it atop her pinkie. He slowly brushed his finger against her skin, and she felt his encouragement. She felt his assurance, and his compassion, and she also felt the thrilling tingle that small touch sent all the way up her arm. She ducked her head as she hid her smile, but he smiled like he knew it (which he probably did, since the touch always went both ways) and he straightened up in his seat once more, pulling his hand back to his own leg as if nothing had happened.

"Jeffrey, I'm surprised to see you." Senator Nadeer commented primly as she entered the room, eyeballing Mace and Daisy. They all got to their feet as the judge walked in as well.

"Yeah, I'm sure you are," Mace mused blithely.  
  
"Surprised to see him not dead, you mean?" Daisy snarked, suddenly feeling rather defensive of the man beside her. Protective; like, mama-bear levels. Woah, Daisy, settle down girl. Talbot appeared out of nowhere and physically put himself between the two at the table and the Senator, as if he knew of Daisy’s suddenly fierce emotions.

"There will be plenty of time to ask questions after we've started." Talbot told Nadeer. "Ellen."

"I expect a lot of questions will be answered in this meeting." She replied to Talbot in just a serious tone. Then she smiled and said toward Mace and Daisy, "Have fun."

She walked up toward her seat at the front, and Talbot shook his head at Daisy as he stepped around their table to sit in the audience behind them.

"Great. What does that even mean?" Daisy whispered at Talbot, relaxing slightly as there was more physical distance between Nadeer and Mace. Talbot paused, and glanced back toward the Senator before looking at Daisy.

"I think we're gonna find out." He mused, in a tone of voice that suggested he suspected what it meant. He gave her a look, and then moved on to his seat. Daisy glanced back at Mace to see him wearing an innocent blank smile as he sat, and she took a deep breath before she sat down as well.

There was no way the Senator knew about the soulmate thing. That wasn't it. Could it be it? Daisy needed to stop thinking about that before she worried herself again. No use fretting over what hasn't happened yet.

"All right, let's bring the meeting to order. Agent Daisy Johnson, we'd like to swear you in." This man sounded polite enough, at least. She got back to her feet, and folded her hands together in front of her waist.

 

**\------**

 

"You did well, today." Mace told her, fingering the bottle of beer in his hands, his eyes on it instead of on her. The kitchen was oddly empty except for the two of them, but Daisy found the silence this time comforting instead of awkward. "You won them all over. If it weren't for Nadeer..."

"If it weren't for Nadeer," Daisy put in softly, when he didn't finish, "we wouldn't be in this mess."

He nodded in agreement with that, and then after a moment gestured his bottle. She nodded, and he fetched her a cold one from the fridge.

When he held it out toward her, she wrapped her hand around his. He flinched in surprise at the touch, his eyes darting toward hers.

"Thank you." She told him, holding on so that he could feel as well as hear her sincerity. "Thank you for having my back today. I know there were a couple of times you wanted to speak up for me, but thank you for holding back. I needed to take them on on my own."

"I know." He murmured, smiling a little bit. It was fond, both in his expression and through their skin-touch. His pride in her made her feel a little uncomfortable, and she gingerly slid her fingers more around the bottle than his hand, and pulled it away from him. He let her, and tucked his hand into his pocket casually, leaning his hip against the counter as he took a drink of his own beer.

She was finally starting to admit that just because he had lied, it didn't make him a bad person. He had his good qualities, and she couldn't blind herself to that. She would need to stop getting hung up on his faults, anyway, if she was going to survive being his soulmate. Honestly, it could be much worse. She'd had boyfriends in the past with _way_  worse faults than being too smug, too much of a politician, too afraid of not belonging. And anyway, he seemed to be bringing himself down to earth, lately. Less stuffy politician, more proper team leader.

She wasn't about to voice that opinion out loud to anyone anytime soon, though.

She took a long drink of her beer, and then offered him a careful small smile. He smiled back, warmly, and dropped his gaze down to the floor. Something inside of her fluttered lightly, and she inwardly groaned. No. He was _not_  cute. That was just the phase one of lovesickness talking.


	5. Chapter 5

"If our friends in Calgary could take Asset 63-D9-4A, that’d be better," Daisy told Agent Smith. “She’s gonna need a cold climate. And remember the relocation data is for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s eyes only, so if you get any push back, you know how to find me.”

"Copy that, Agent Johnson." She replied warmly, giving her a smile before logging off the video chat. Daisy turned to the door, realizing that Mace was standing there. He had an odd sort of soft smile on his face, and she sent him a quick, rather stilted one before moving to his desk to add the file in her hands atop the pile resting there.

The last time they were in this office alone....

“Inhuman relocation?” He asked.

“With Senator Nadeer’s clearance and her connections, we have to assume that every Inhuman in our Index is a potential target.” She replied distractedly, focusing on the files for a moment.

It was difficult every morning when she just wanted to reach out and touch him. Hold him, really. Stroke her fingers against his jaw and kiss the corner of his mouth there... she dropped her eyes to the file again, opening it for no real reason other than as a distraction.

“She’s gonna fight us on this.” He noted. He stayed where he was, keeping some space between them. She appreciated that, though she figured he was fighting off some lovesickness desires, as well, especially when he clasped his fingers together in front him. He looked relaxed at first glance, but she could see that he was preoccupied.

Damn it, she needed to stop looking at him so much. She turned her back completely, straightening the stack of files on his desk.

“The Sokovia Accords give her a right to their location.” There was a hint of frustration in his voice.

“That’s why you’ll make sure that the U.N. backs our play, no matter how many grueling bureaucratic conference calls you have to make.” She ribbed him good-naturedly, turning around to hand him the stack of files. His shoulders slumped, but he took them from her with a sigh.

_Disappointment. Regret._

Daisy felt the emotions before she even realized that their fingers had brushed, and when she hesitated, he pulled away from her, averting his eyes. The muscle in his jaw twitched, and he tucked the files under his arm, turning toward the screen as he heard a phone call coming in.

“What’s wrong?” Daisy wondered, sensing that his emotions were more pointed inward than outward. He glanced over at her and shook his head once, answering the call instead,

“Phil. How’s the fishing expedition?”

“Turns out Daisy and Fitz were right,” Coulson answered. “The partnership between Nadeer and the Watchdogs isn’t out of thin air. They have a common friend, a broker of sorts. Man by the name of Thomas Richards. Works for the Roxxon Corporation.”

“The oil company?” Mace frowned.

“They're a conglomerate, but yes, oil is one of their main business deals. You might remember Richards as the guy that got kidnapped by the Mandarin, and murdered on live television a few years back,” Coulson said dryly. “Which all subsequently turned out to be fake.”

“Right... and as a big name accountant for the company, it wouldn’t be unheard of for Richards to be meeting with the Senator. He’s the perfect middle man.” Mace realized, following along.

"We've been surveilling him best we can, but he's proven to be a real pain in the ass. The most paranoid man I think I've ever seen, and that's saying something."

"Which means he's probably got some nasty skeletons in his closet," Mace figured. "How can I help?"

Daisy furrowed her brow at his tone, but decided not to interject herself into their conversation. Mace sounded almost desperate.

"You're doing it," Coulson promised, and Mace shook his head and walked toward his desk, dropping the stack of files on top of it.

"I wanna be here for you, Phil. Felix Blake has all but disappeared, we have news that one of the largest corporations in the world might be backing the Watchdogs, Senator Nadeer is gunning for the Inhumans - I need to do something more!" He gestured his hands up in defeat as he rounded his desk, standing behind it almost petulantly.

"I know." Coulson replied gently. "I felt the same way when I started working for the Avengers. It's not easy to find your place when you're working with heroes and gods." Mace raised his eyebrows understandingly, and looked down at his desk.

"So what did you do?" He wondered, settling heavily into his chair.

"I did my best to protect the team. Turns out, I had a role to play. You'll make the right decision at the right time," He told Mace soothingly, and then joked, "Or, you'll get an Asgardian staff through the chest. I'd try to avoid that part."

Daisy was surprised that Mace apparently knew about that. Even though Coulson's file was no longer super-classified, it still wasn't something just anybody knew. Not the _truth_ , anyway. She wondered how much Mace really knew about Coulson's survival.

"Goes without saying," Mace said fondly, "thanks, Phil." He tapped a button on his keyboard to end the call, and sighed heavily. Daisy re-approached the desk, slowly.

"You had a physical with Jemma this morning, didn't you? I'm guessing it didn't go well?" She asked carefully. He stared dejectedly at the top of his desk.

"The army modified the Patriot serum for my DNA, but it was apparently still wreaking havoc on my body. I guess there's a good thing that came out of this; it covers up my lovesickeness." He grumbled.

"Lovesickness? I don't understand; we took care of phase three," She didn't want to think too long on that, either, "and we spar every other morning,"

"Daisy, it's like having the flu and taking one pill instead of the prescribed two," He pointed out. "We're barely staving off the effects and you know it."

She admittedly did feel a little more fatigued than usual, these past couple of days, but she'd gotten used to hiding her lovesickness. Used to being in a perpetual state of phase one, or worse. Mace couldn't risk that, though. Not with all of the cameras on him, and especially not with Simmons running these tests on him. Frankly, Daisy was surprised that the doctor hadn't figured it out already.

"Come here, stand up," She sighed, and rounded his desk. He turned in his chair to watch her warily, but he stood quickly once she neared him.

"What?"

"Just..." Daisy pursed her lips. Maybe she should just do what the lovesickness was making her crave to do; maybe that craving existed for a reason. Well - minus the kissing part. She sure as hell wasn't going to kiss him, regardless of their somewhat-friendship now. "Let me..."

She slowly reached up and rested her palms on either side of his jaw. His eyes widened in surprise, but he stood very still and let her hold him, much like he had the other day. His feelings of disappointment and self-doubts were overwhelming, and Daisy tried to push them away, replace them with her calm confidence. She closed her eyes as she focused very intently on what was happening between them; focused more than she ever had before. Gently, she pulled his head down until his forehead touched hers, and then she kept very still as well.

"We'll figure it out," She murmured encouragingly, hearing his worries and knowing from his conversation with Phil that it had to do with finding his place in the team. "FitzSimmons together have the greatest minds in probably the entire world. If anybody could figure out your serum for you, they can."

"Thank you," He whispered, and she opened her eyes to find that his had closed. His mouth was hanging open slightly, in an expression something akin to awe.

Daisy felt invigorated; for the first time, her symptoms of lovesickness were completely gone. While the fatigue hadn't been super heavy today, the difference without it was still noticeable after having dealt with some phase of lovesickness ever since they first touched months ago.

Okay, she could definitely see why people saw this soulmate thing as a good thing. The synergy she could feel between herself and Mace was amazing. They weren't skin-touching as much now as they had the other day, but it was like their last touch had boosted this one. This small touch felt almost just as amazing as nestling against the crook of his neck had.

"Phase one?" Daisy questioned carefully, slowly pulling away from Mace and taking a step back. Her thoughts had started to run away from her, and they were scaring her again.

"Gone." He sounded just as amazed as she felt. "Totally gone." He opened his eyes, his thankfulness extremely apparent.

"Good." She gave him a prim smile, and stepped back around to the other side of the desk. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Bye," He sounded breathless, and she refused to turn around and look at him again.

Why, why, _why_  did something she did with _him_  have to feel so damn _good_? It felt wrong, that that little moment had felt so right. That _he_  felt so right.

 

**\------**

 

_"Details are scarce, but it appears that Senator Ellen Nadeer's office was ground zero in an explosion that looks deliberately set."_

Daisy folded her arms as the newscaster went on. This was just great...

_"Many are asking if Nadeer's outspoken anti-Inhuman stance made her a target. Currently there are no suspects, but the F.B.I. is searching..."_

"Is it possible?" Mace asked Daisy, talking over the news broadcast they had gathered around to watch. "Could an Inhuman have done this?"

"No way," Daisy insisted, "they've all been accounted for by me."

"We can't account for the Inhumans that we don't know about, or the sympathizers." Fitz pointed out.

"Come on, you guys." Daisy gestured toward the tv. "This is just another setup. Nadeer's furious about the relocations, and she wants people riled up against Inhumans."

"Would Nadeer go so far as to bomb her own office?" Simmons speculated. Daisy raised her eyebrow, wondering if her friend suddenly forgot about the rather public assassination attempt on the leader of a government agency. Nadeer would clearly go to _any_  lengths that she deemed necessary.

"Trust me," Daisy insisted, "She's gonna show up on the news having just missed the blast, and she's gonna pin it all on S.H.I.E.L.D. That's what she does." She took a step closer to the tv as Mace nudged her and pointed to it,

"Daisy."

_"We're just getting confirmation from the F.B.I. We have four confirmed casualties, the only positive identification belonging to the young man that once worked as the Senator's aide. We can only hope that by some miraculous event, the Senator is not one of the other three, but this new knowledge does not bode well. We will continue to keep you updated as more information comes to light. Reporting live for CNB..."_

"So she wasn't there," Daisy figured, and Mace tilted his head to the side, unsure.

"Not necessarily; there are still three other bodies unaccounted for, and she and that aide were practically inseparable," He reasoned.

"If Nadeer was in there, the news would've announced it." Daisy turned to face him. "Call Coulson. See where they are on Thomas Richards. My money is that he's currently headed somewhere off of his usual route, and he's in a hurry."

"Who is Thomas Richards?" Simmons wondered, not caught up to speed yet.

"You think she plotted a cover up and is meeting him?" Mace frowned even more deeply. "Why would she blow up her own office?"

"To pin it on the Inhumans." Daisy reminded him, tired of having to explain herself. How was it not obvious to them? "They're planning something, and this is just a step in the process."

Mace seemed to think quickly about something, and then gave Daisy a short nod.

"Catch them up on Richards," He ordered her, pointing at Fitz and Simmons, "then grab what you need. It's time to show the world what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for."

 

**\------**

 

"Director Mace, are Inhumans behind this?" The reporters started in on them as soon as their group neared the Senator's office, and Daisy inwardly groaned. Mace opened his mouth but then closed it and kept walking, ignoring the question. Daisy raised her eyebrows in surprise as she followed him. Ignoring the media was an unusual choice for him.

They approached the yellow tape and he lifted it for Fitz and Simmons to duck under, but Daisy paused, and glanced back to check that the reporters hadn't followed them this far. They were still taking pictures, but they wouldn't be able to hear their conversation.

"You said you wanted to show the world what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for." She quirked her eyebrow slightly, and he looked over at the reporters before looking back at her.

"Well, I was hoping to do that by solving this thing," He returned, a little put out that she was telling him to hang back.

"We got this." Daisy promised him, giving him a little teasing expression as she ducked beneath the yellow tape. He might have the title of Director, but for all intents and purposes, he was a rookie. She was gonna rib him like one for as long as she could get away with it.

"So I guess now I'm the team mascot." She heard him mutter to himself as she strolled away, and she smirked. With his dorky little catch-phrase, he _was_  a bit of a cheerleader.

The F.B.I. agent standing at the other end of the hall handed her the computer that was compiling phone calls to and from the office, and she checked it out as she stepped into the burned out room. The other two had already started working, using their gadgets to gather readings.

"How am I not finding any trace of bomb-making material?" Fitz complained, frowning down toward the tablet in his hands.

“Probably the same way I’m not finding any trace of accelerant.” Simmons murmured, focused intently on the Senator’s desk.

“Has to be something.” Fitz was frustrated.

“Clearly.”

“And yet, there is nothing.”

“So,” Simmons stood straight, “we take a bit of everything and test a bit of everything, old-school. Like in the chem lab, at our old school.”

Daisy raised her eyebrows at her friend, and joked,

“Clearly you’ve been working with Coulson for too long.” She watched as Simmons bagged some particular blackened thing that apparently had stood out from all the other burnt items in the room. “Guess who’s on the Senator’s caller I.D. right before the blast?” She scrolled down and highlighted the name, pulling up a basic government identification file as Fitz and Simmons gathered around her. “One Mr. Thomas Richards. _And_  guess who was seen walking through security right after his call, also arriving before the blast?” She swiped the page over to reveal camera footage. “Cattle-prod enthusiast Tucker Shockley. High-level Watchdog, and if memory serves, I Quaked his ass.” She grinned at the fond memory. That guy was an asshole.

“You guys saw Watchdogs at the Senator’s home,” Fitz mused, “though she claimed they were just hired security...”

“And because we weren’t there on a sanctioned mission, we couldn’t raise any flags about it without the Senator burying it.” Daisy nodded. “But this is proof, on tape,”

“This only looks like the Watchdogs wanted her dead,” Fitz pointed out. “We still haven’t found any evidence of her body, alive or...” He glanced at the destroyed room around them, “...otherwise. We need to get a recording of that phone call,” he pointed at the tablet in her hands, “find out if Richards was warning her of an attack, if he planned the attack, or if he was signaling a cover-up.”

“In any of those scenarios, I have a hard time believing that Shockley would give his life for the cause.” Simmons piped in. “What was his motive?”

“I’m sure he’s the bomber. The other three bodies haven’t been identified yet; if he’s not in the morgue, then we need to find him.”

“How does a facial-recognition search in the city with the most surveillance cameras on the planet sound?” Simmons grinned, and Daisy did as well.

“Like a good start.”


	6. Chapter 6

As it turned out, Shockley _was_  among those killed in the blast... but he wasn't in the morgue.

"Damn... Got hydrocarbons up the wazoo, but not a single oxidizing agent that would cause an explosion." Simmons complained in frustration. Fitz paced away from her as he thought.

"No nitro-methane?" He asked.

"No."

"Sulphonic acid?"

"No, just carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous - "

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Fitz interjected quickly, pacing back toward her. "Did you find selenium?" She snapped her gloves off as she looked at him, furrowing her brow.

"How did you know?"

"Jemma, you didn't find pieces of bomb casing in that office. You found pieces of,"

"Inhuman husk!" Simmons exclaimed at the same time he did. "Fitz, you're brilliant!"

"Well, we both said it at the same time," He shrugged.

"So that means somebody in that office went through a Terrigenesis. And then what, just exploded?"

"We've seen worse." Fitz pointed out.

"It must've happened almost immediately, considering it seems no one left the office once the Terrigenesis began. Can you imagine how _quickly_  the mist interacts with Inhuman DNA to - "

"Uh, guys?" Daisy, sitting off to the side and watching them, interrupted their excitement. "I'd hate to butt in on this big science-y moment, but speaking of DNA - maybe you wanna test some of that 'bomb casing' to see who it was?"

"Right." Fitz and Simmons both sobered, and quickly shifted back toward the work table.

Twenty-four hours later, they confirmed that what remained of Shockley was in their lab on the Zephyr.

"Damn," Mace grimaced as the scientists explained to him what they figured had happened. He looked toward Daisy. "What a way to go. ...So we've confirmed the Watchdogs were behind the explosion - whether intentional or not remains to be seen - that's still good for Inhumans. Get this information to the F.B.I. immediately so they can corroborate, and we can get some of this anti-Inhuman ranting off of the news." He rubbed his hand against his face tiredly. "Unfortunately, this doesn't yet prove that Nadeer is working _with_  the Watchdogs. Even with all the bodies identified, she's still in the wind. It could be a kidnapping for all we know."

"A kidnapping-bombing?" Daisy raised her eyebrow. "That's not usually how kidnappings work. If somebody had been shot, maybe, sure, but the Terrigenesis explosion -"

"Everyone knows how violent the Watchdogs are. While I _do_  agree with you, Daisy, that Nadeer is probably in hiding out there somewhere, the public isn't going to so quickly revert to the 'She's a witch! Burn her!' side of things until they have more damning proof."

"Monty Python? Really, sir?" Simmons frowned, and Mace shrugged, throwing his hands up in defeat. He looked exhausted already, and Daisy wondered when it was he last slept.

"Coulson and Mack are still on Richards. He's managed to bump them off his tail twice already, but they found him holed up in a hotel in downtown L.A. Seems he can't stay away from those luxury suites," Mace announced dryly, and tapped a button on his keyboard to bring up various hotel security cameras. "Lucky for us, they've got a lot of security."

"A lot of _hackable_  security," Daisy noted with a grin, and he glanced over to give her that same little proud smile she first saw at the Senator's house.

That smile made her stomach flutter happily, and she inwardly scowled at herself for the reaction.

"Exactly. After securing the transcript from Richard's call to Nadeer, we've proven that there is a connection to him, and we've been granted authority to act as we see fit. Daisy was able to analyze the conversation and confirm that he'd been signaling Nadeer to cut and run. I don't want to go into the hotel guns blazing, however. We've got to gather enough intel to take. Her. Down. For good." He told them seriously, and they all nodded. "Mack and Phil are working on securing photos and recordings now. Daisy, I'd like you to scour through the hotel footage and see what you can find there. If we can prove her collusion with the Watchdogs without a doubt, and take Richards down as well, then the media, the F.B.I. - hell, nobody could have any reason to believe anything she says about Inhumans. It would destroy her credibility, past and future."

"She wouldn't only get the justice she deserves," Daisy realized his intentions, "but society's views on Inhumans would change for the better. Big time." He nodded.

"Exactly." He murmured. They smiled at one another, both filled with hope at that thought, and then he suddenly averted his eyes and cleared his throat. "FitzSimmons, prepare the Shockley file for me and I'll send it on to the F.B.I."

They nodded and stepped out of the room, and Daisy turned her focus toward her tablet, stepping up to the screen on the wall as she got to work. Mace sat down behind his desk, and they worked in comfortable silence, a quiet excitement in the room as they finally seemed to truly have the upper hand for the first time in ages.

It reminded Daisy a bit of the earlier years, when she would work with Coulson on the Bus, or at the Playground. There was a sense of peace between Mace and her and she wondered if they would have reached this point so quickly had they not been soulmates.

 

**\------**

 

Daisy, Mace, and Fitz met up with Coulson and Mack outside of the hotel in L.A. Fitz would hang back in the comms van, and keep an eye on things from there. May stayed back in the Zephyr at the airfield, keeping it ready to go. The four on the ground planned on heading inside to make sure that Nadeer couldn't slither away again. Best case scenario, they'd be able to nab Thomas Richards as well, but they knew he'd be a tougher nut to crack with Roxxon backing him up. Even with the transcript they had, he was practically untouchable.

Fitz confirmed that neither Richards nor Nadeer had left the suite upon entering it, so as the team hurried through the lobby, they only glanced around and toward the restaurant briefly before heading straight to the elevators. Mace approached the front desk, first, holding up his warrant and badge, and setting the warrant on the counter.

"Official S.H.I.E.L.D. business," He announced brusquely. "You have a guest here named Thomas Richards. You can either hand me over a keycard for his room, or we'll break the door down."

"Thomas Richards?" The man behind the counter frowned, and shook his head before he even checked his computer screen, though he did make a show of typing something out quickly. "I'm sorry sir, but we don't have a guest here by that name,"

"We know he's here." Mace narrowed his eyes, lifting his chin a little, and Daisy smirked as the employee visibly cowered a little.

Within another minute, Mace had a room key in his hand and joined them at the elevator.

"Floor thirty-two," Fitz reminded them over comms, and Mack pressed the appropriate button. They stood in silence as the elevator began to move upward, watching the numbers increase bit by bit.

Daisy grabbed Mace's arm and tugged him backward, putting him behind the rest of them. At his expression of indignation, she pressed her lips together firmly.

"Yeah, good idea," Coulson noted of the switch, "you're here for the legality of the thing, Jeffrey. The vest will only do so much if bullets start flying."

Now that they were both sort of in the back of the elevator, Daisy slid her hand down to Mace's elbow, where his rolled up sleeves exposed skin.

(She couldn't even begin to think about how hot all three of these men were right now, with their dress shirts and kevlar vests and rolled up sleeves. She was outnumbered, and oh was she enjoying it.)

Mace looked at her questioningly, not understanding the skin-touch. They weren't even struggling through phase one, anymore, so it wasn't necessary. Daisy figured though, that if she thought very carefully and directly, she could get her point across pretty clearly.

_If they start shooting, duck and cover. Protect yourself._

His frown deepened slightly.

_Protect you._

Daisy gave him a smile as she lowered her hand from him and reaffirmed her grip on her Icer. Her expression said it all, and he sighed quietly but appeared to heed her words.

"Heads up," Mack warned as the elevator shifted from thirty to thirty-one. By the time the doors opened with a soft 'ding', they were already moving, guns first. The short hall the elevators were in came to a 't', and they flanked one another as they checked around the corners.

There was a man at the far end to the left, appearing to be guarding the stairwell, and there was another one slightly closer on the right, probably standing in front of the occupied suite, judging by his distance.

Daisy gestured that she'd take the one on the left, and lowered her weapon in one hand only to raise the other and point her palm toward the Watchdog. The goons hadn't even bothered changing out of their well-known knock-off military garb. Coulson rushed the door guard, managing to grab him and take him down silently before he could raise much alarm, though the guy down by the stairs managed to shout a short "hey!" before Daisy quaked him unconscious.

"Quickly," Coulson urged as she rejoined the group and Mack confirmed a nod before tapping the key card against the reader. The light flashed green, and he opened the door slowly, listening for the scuffling of feet.

It was quiet, so they tentatively figured they might still have the element of surprise, and they entered the room silently, Mace holding the latch carefully so that the door closed quietly behind them. The suite immediately opened into the living room, and dining room beyond; both were empty. Daisy glanced out of the small terrace to their right, but there was no one outside either. She furrowed her brow at Mack, who affirmed his grip on his Icer and approached the bedroom to the left, Coulson with him. Daisy and Mace slowly crossed the living room in the meantime, and Daisy noted movement outside on the other terrace across from them.

"Stay here!" She ordered Mace, holstering her weapon and yanking open the glass door, her eyes focused on the man she could see. She should've checked the corner.

A man barreled into her from the right, throwing her onto a patio chair and landing on top of her as he tried to get his hands around her throat. They scuffled, and the first man used the distraction to slip around them and back into the hotel room.

"Mace!" Daisy managed to shout out, "Stop him!"

"Freeze!" She heard, "Thomas Richards! Tell your men to stand down!"

"They aren't my men," Richards snorted, "They take orders from someone else."

Daisy used both arms to break the Watchdog's hold from her throat and thrust her palm against his chest, but was too out of air to use her powers properly. He only stumbled back slightly, as she quickly tried to get the black spots swimming in her vision to go away.

"She told me to do everything in my power to take you down," The Watchdog sneered at Daisy, "And I intend to."

Daisy noted the "she" briefly before she was parrying punches with the guy, blocking most of his, landing only a few of hers. Geez, was he _on_  something? He really wasn't going down easily. If she could just get a decent opening to grab her Icer from the holster, or clear her head enough to use her powers properly...

A gun went off in the hotel room, the timing out of place, and it caught her attention just enough that he managed to connect his fist to the side of her head. The room spun as she bent slightly, wincing, and he kneed her hard in the stomach. All of her air left her, then, and she gritted her teeth in annoyance.

Suddenly, Mace was there, tackling the guy low around the hips, pushing him back with a shout until his back slammed hard into the railing. Still the Watchdog rammed his elbow down into Mace's back, and then tried to hit him with a hook when he still wouldn't let go.

Daisy sucked in a breath of air and stumbled to her feet, pulling her Icer free and approaching the two men, trying to get a clear shot at the Watchdog. Mace released his grip to pull his fist back and land a punch squarely in the guy's ribs, which definitely had to hurt, but then the Watchdog returned with another hook, catching Mace just beneath his eye. The momentum of the hard hit pushed him to the side enough that Daisy got three shots off into the Watchdog's arm and chest, and he immediately slumped to the ground unconscious.

Mace fell back onto his ass, scooting away from the guy a bit as he tried to catch his breath.

"Are you okay?" He asked up toward her urgently, and she stared down at him incredulously as she too had to catch her breath again. His lip was bleeding and there was a cut over his cheekbone where the man's punch had broken his skin. The worst she would have was probably a little bruising around her neck, maybe a mild concussion from the hit to her head. It was nothing compared to her usual bumps and bruises. He'd just fucking tackled a guy who was bigger than _he_  was, without nearly the training that she had.

"I'm fine." She replied ineloquently. He huffed out a breath, and then nodded, and looked to the unconscious man in front of him. "Come on," She reached down, helping him back up to his feet, and they quickly let one another go before the skin-touch thing got to be too much. Neither of them wanted the other to feel how much they actually ached right now. "Coulson?" Daisy called out.

"We're good," Mack answered. "Guy was hiding out in the bathroom. Luckily, Phil shot first."

"And Richards?" Mace wondered as they stepped back into the room, and Mack smirked as he looked down at the man sitting on the edge of the couch, his hands shackled together behind him.

"Safe and sound." Mack assured, grabbing the man's arm to guide him up. "Let's go," He said to Richards, and then to the others, "I'll take him down to the car. Coulson's just checking for any documents or evidence of Nadeer."

"Thanks, Mack," Mace said gratefully, sounding a little ashamed of himself. Mack only nodded, and Daisy frowned as she waited for the two of them to be alone in the living room.

"We got him, Mace. It was a successful mission." Daisy reasoned. "Well, mostly. I have no idea where Nadeer could've disappeared to."

"But we almost _didn't_  get him! I should've kept my eye on him, and not gone after the Watchdog. Mack had to run after Richards because all I could think about was getting that guy off of you, even though you no doubt could've managed on your own." Mace replied, frustrated. "I was distracted because of - " He cut himself off, and pursed his lips. "I fumbled the ball, Daisy. There's no excuse for that."

He was angry with himself, and he stalked out of the hotel room before she could say anything else. She sighed quietly, and took a moment before joining Coulson in the bedroom.

"Find anything?" She asked, and her mentor grunted in annoyance as he tossed a black binder onto the bed.

"Just the room-service menu. Damn it! Fitz," He said into comms, "I thought you said she didn't leave the room."

"She didn't," Fitz promised. "Not through the front door, anyway. She's not on any of the security cameras after she goes into the room. They weren't tampered with, either."

Daisy and Coulson shared a look, and then looked in the direction of the balcony.

"You don't think she would have..." Daisy trailed off.

"Climbed down the side of the building?" Coulson finished the thought, and gave her a big shrug. "At this point, I leave nothing out of the question with that woman. Especially if she had one of her 'bodyguards' helping her." He heaved a sigh almost as big as his shrug. "Come on. We've got one guy to interview, at least. If he's not the big fish, he'll definitely be able to lead us to whoever is."

They were silent until the elevator was about halfway down to the lobby.

"I heard Mace frustrated about fumbling a ball?" Coulson wondered. "What was he talking about?"

"You know him and his football metaphors," Daisy rolled her eyes, and Coulson nodded knowingly. "He's just beating himself up because he doesn't think he made the right choice in the heat of the moment."

"What? To save you?" Coulson raised his eyebrow. "As opposed to what? You needed help. Any one of us would've defended our partner first."

"Yeah, but he doesn't see it that way. He thinks he was overreacting because - " Daisy stopped talking immediately. _Fuck_ , she'd just been about to _casually admit_  to Coulson that she and Mace were soulmates!

"Because he's the boss, and he cares about us." Coulson nodded. Daisy swallowed hard, and nodded silently as well. "He thinks the mission should come first. Though he wasn't wrong - the team is just as important. And Mack caught up with Richards easily and brought him back, it wasn't like the mission ended up a bust."

"I know that, I told him that! More or less."

"Maybe I should say something? Assure him that prioritizing the safety of a teammate over the mission isn't a bad thing?" Coulson mused, and then under his breath he added, "Usually."

"No!" Daisy blurted, and he furrowed his brow at her tone. "No, don't say anything to him. Uh, don't tell him we talked about this, okay? I'll talk to him."

He gave her a long, perplexed look.

"Okay," He replied slowly.

When they got to the van, Daisy hesitated as Coulson climbed in, stepping around the others to sit in the front passenger seat.

"Where's Mace?" Daisy asked tersely, the hair on the back of her neck prickling. Something was wrong.

"He's not with you?" Fitz frowned, and Daisy stepped back from the van, quickly glancing up and down the street. She didn't see him amongst the pedestrians, and she looked back toward the hotel. "You didn't catch Nadeer?"

"We told you in the room, Fitz, she wasn't there," Daisy narrowed her eyes at him.

" _Coulson_ asked me about the cameras, and then the Director shouted that he had eyes on Nadeer, and then _you_  confirmed you were heading down to give him some support."

"No, I didn't." Daisy once more glanced down the street, her unsettled feeling skyrocketing, but she didn't see any cars peeling away quickly, or people in a scuffle, or anyone remotely familiar. "And I didn't hear Mace say anything about Nadeer, either.

"What are you talking about, Fitz?" Coulson asked carefully, and Daisy hopped into the van and quickly slid into the seat in front of their comms computer. "We haven't heard from Mace since he left the hotel room. And I was standing next to Daisy the entire time - we left the room and came straight down here."

"Oh, damn." Daisy discovered, "We've been hacked!"

"How could they have made themselves sound like Daisy?" Mack wondered incredulously. "How could they have only hacked in to Fitz's line and not ours, when we're all on the same channel? None of us heard what you heard, Turbo."

"It's actually pretty simple - and my voice is all over the internet, considering all the damn Quake media. They could've spliced together footage and gone from there." Daisy growled, pushing her way toward the front of the van and sliding into the driver's seat. She started the van and put it in gear, and Coulson gave her a look as she pulled out onto the street with a squeal of the tires.

"Do you know where he is?" Coulson asked, and she shook her head.

"No, but we might be able to track him from base. There's a tracking system on the computer in his office."

"But he wasn't wearing his Patriot suit," Fitz pointed out.

"He had one in his kevlar vest. We all do." Daisy glanced into the rearview mirror with a wry look. "Upgrades I applied yesterday evening. Mace wanted a way to keep track of his agents in the field with a completely internal system. That's why we've got to head back to HQ. The trackers are impossible to hack - _like our comms system should have been_  - but the downside is they're only viewable from the Director's computer."

"Huh," Coulson mused, "good thinking." He was impressed, but Daisy was too worried to smile about that right now. "So you're assuming he's been taken?"

"Our comms were hacked, he claims to have seen Nadeer, and they covered their tracks so he wouldn't have any backup. If he did really see her, she was bait. He's been taken." Daisy knew without a doubt, and she gripped the wheel angrily as she dodged and weaved through traffic.

She wasn't sure whether she was more angry at Mace - who clearly wanted to prove his worth to the point that he would stupidly chase after the Senator on his own - or angry at the Watchdogs for getting one over her.

"Send a message to May, would you?" Daisy asked Coulson, gesturing briefly toward his arm. "Use that to contact the Zephyr. I don't trust our comms system right now." Coulson nodded, and twisted his wrist to tap at the readout that appeared over his prosthetic.

"I'm guessing _you_  aren't going to tell us where they've taken the Director." Mack questioned Richards dryly.

"Whatever Senator Nadeer's plans are, they are her own." He responded, and Fitz huffed under his breath as he shifted toward the communications computer and shut everything down.

 

**\------**

 

Richards was closed up tight and didn't speak another word to them. What he'd said thus far was not actually incriminating, and eventually a lawyer had to be allowed in to the base, handing over a paper that announced that Richards was free to go. They could do nothing but watch as he and his lawyer were escorted off of the base by one of the agents.

It was all incredibly shady, however while he was in HQ, Daisy was able to hack the other phone she found on him, without his knowledge. It had shown up on their scanning system, tucked deep inside of a hidden pocket in his jacket. Daisy had chosen not to vocalize the find, specifically so that she could hack it. Sure enough, it was encrypted, and had a kill-switch setting that all he'd have to do to destroy it was press the volume and power buttons at the same time. They wouldn't have noticed, and he would've ruined the lead before they could do anything about it.

Since she kept her silence, Daisy was able to trace a call to another phone that she guessed Nadeer was using. The call had been received just moments after the explosion at her office, and the length of the call made Daisy guess that Nadeer had been confirming her survival and where to meet with Richards.

Fitz, in the meantime, was able to find footage of Nadeer and another small group of Watchdogs outside of the hotel. They'd deactivated many of the cameras that pointed toward the building from the streets, but almost everybody had a smartphone these days, and he was able to worm his way through using local wifi access. Daisy was quite proud, honestly - she'd taught him well.

Apparently Nadeer had a helicopter fly in close to the terrace of the hotel room, and a few more Watchdogs to help her out as they used a line to jump from the terrace into the helicopter. It was difficult to follow the helicopter from there, as most people didn't walk around with their phone cameras pointed upward toward the sky, but it was temporarily enough to know that she had indeed been in that hotel room.

Daisy stood in Mace's office, staring at the large screen with an intent expression and her arms folded across her chest. She was watching the blinking dot that signaled his tracker as it zig-zagged all over the map, seemingly having no destination. Piper and Davis were on the other end of the speaker phone with her, listening to her instructions as they tried to catch up to it and follow it.

"Daisy!" Fitz hurried in with his tablet in his hand. "Have they caught up, yet? What's the license plate on the car they're tailing?"

"Piper?" Daisy questioned, knowing that the pair had heard Fitz's words over the speaker.

"Hold on... We didn't want to alert them that they're being followed, yet. They might be looking for any excuse to kill him."

"They won't just shoot him in the car, not after going through the trouble to kidnap him. There's a reason for all of this." Daisy gritted her teeth together. They'd better _not_  just shoot him and dump him along the road. God, if they even - she would -

"Daisy, are you alright?" Fitz worried, gripping her shoulder.

She unclenched her fists, and thinned her lips together, realizing that her powers had shifted through the room and knocked a couple of books off of the shelf.

"Sorry." She muttered. Then, louder so the phone would pick her up, "Get closer. Give us the plate number."

"Uh... two, juliet, whiskey, juliet, four-nine-zero." Davis answered.

"That's not the car." Fitz immediately replied, and Daisy turned toward him slowly.

"What?"

"That might be where his tracker is, but that's not the car I've got Nadeer and him in. Here," He twisted his tablet around so she could look at it, and pointed at the screen. "Maybe they suspected tracking devices and tossed the vest. But this SUV is the most recent vehicle I've seen them in."

"How did she - " Daisy narrowed her eyes and turned toward the large screen again. "Piper, Davis - engage. Figure out who's in that car you're following, and what they know."

"Ten-four," Piper responded immediately, and Daisy and Fitz watched on screen as the blinking dot eventually came to a full stop, and stayed still for a while.

"How did you find this SUV?" Daisy asked Fitz, as muffled shouting and scuffling emanated from the phone call.

"During that period of time where the Director's tracker went out in the tunnel, even though the timing wasn't suspicious considering the traffic and length of the tunnel, I thought I should run the plates of all the cars coming out of the other side within the span of time, just in case." Fitz swiped his fingers across the tablet to show her various screenshots he'd taken, as he spoke. "This one popped up as stolen, recently, so I followed it on street cams until I could get a clear shot inside the front window." He tapped on another picture, and zoomed in close.

It was grainy, and shadowed, but she could recognize Nadeer sitting in the backseat, and a hooded figure next to her. She also recognized the driver as one of the men that had helped her off of the hotel terrace.

"The Senator. And did they really put a black hood over Mace’s head? How old school."

"I think it's a hooded sweatshirt, actually," Fitz explained, "which is how I guessed they'd left his tracker back in the original vehicle and Piper and Davis were following a rabbit trail. Maybe they'd been checking for a wire, but - "

"Well, uh, either the Director's strolling around in his birthday suit, or they've totally changed his clothes. All his stuff's here in the back of his car. Watch and phone, too." Piper informed them. "They really weren't taking any chances."

"With her clearance, Nadeer would know about the tracker in the Patriot suit. She probably told the Watchdogs to assume that he had tracking devices with him at all times." Daisy noted. To Piper and Davis she said, "Bring our new friends back to base. Fitz managed to track down the new car. We'll establish their location and then coordinate a team for retrieval."

"Have we heard anything from Nadeer or the Watchdogs?" Davis wondered. "Demands? Some kind of trade?"

"Nothing yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Senator wants some kind of immunity in exchange for the Director's life." Daisy figured gravely. "See you soon." She ended the call, then focused back on Fitz again. "Where do you have the car, now?"

"I'm not sure," He furrowed his brow, and she immediately tensed again, though she managed not to quake anything this time. "A section of the street cameras seem to be out. I can't get any visual." He was quiet for a moment, and then pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Wait a minute..." He zoomed out on the circuit map he was looking at, and immediately saw something of a pattern. Daisy saw it, too.

"Some kind of localized EMP?" She wondered, and he shrugged.

"I don't know, but we can follow the blackouts at least. Problem is, the location isn't as exact. Wherever they stop could be within a six block radius. That's a lot of buildings to search."

"It's better than nothing." She clasped his shoulder supportively, and gestured toward the large screen. "Use that if you have to. I'm going to go have a chat with Elena."


	7. Chapter 7

Daisy anonymously released images of Nadeer, alive and breathing with her Watchdog bodyguards, to a local reporter she knew. As the public debated between Nadeer being a victim or a perpetrator, agents on base worked on digging into Roxxon and their financials and how they connected to the Senator.

It took them hours to find where Mace was being held; an old abandoned office building that was all concrete and full of too many rooms that needed checked. Coulson was the one who eventually heard the sounds of a fight, and gestured for Daisy to follow him to a large steel door.

What probably used to be a boiler room now housed only an overturned chair and a group of four guys all circled around a body curled up on the floor. The knock-off military garb gave the men away as Watchdogs, so Daisy could guess that Mace was the one being attacked on the floor. One of them got a good kick into his ribs, and his head jerked back as he cried out in pain, which gave her visual confirmation.

His elbows were tucked in and his head was ducked beneath his hands, but it didn't offer him much protection from their relentless hits, and he seemed unable to fight back at all. Those angry-bear instincts kicked in again, and Daisy felt like her blood was boiling.

"Back up," She ordered Coulson, pulling him away from the door as she pointed her other hand toward the lock, using her powers to burst it apart. She shoved the door open, light from the hallway bleeding into the room and the noise finally drawing the Watchdogs' attention from their prisoner. "You must be a bunch of pansies, fighting against somebody that can't defend themselves." Daisy taunted them, suddenly having a decent understanding of the phrase ‘blind with anger’. She briefly noted that Mace merely slumped in his fetal position, not even looking up at her or Coulson.

"It's the other Inhuman!" One of the men called out, and they all finally stepped away from Mace and engaged Daisy and Coulson.

She threw the first one against the wall with a burst of her powers, and the other she tagged in the side of his neck with her Icer. Both men stayed down, though a third was close enough to reach for her and pushed her right arm up into the air while he knocked her Icer out of her left. He followed through with his knee into her stomach, but she managed to fend off the blow with her own knee and then shot a short quake through her left hand into the ground to push herself up into the air and come down with her right fist against the man's face.

He collapsed like a sack of potatoes, and she glanced over to see Coulson duck a few punches before landing two solid ones that knocked out his own enemy. She immediately turned her attention to Mace and knelt facing him, only freezing at the last moment.

He wasn't moving, and she was scared to touch him. What if he was dead? She couldn't imagine that would be too great to feel through skin-touch. She'd heard horror stories before, and while she had no idea if any of them were true, she didn't want to find out.

Coulson knelt at Mace's back and rested his hand against his shoulder.

"Jeffrey?" He called out, glancing worriedly at Daisy before looking back down at their boss.

She needed to know. Swallowing, she tentatively pressed two of her fingers against the inside of his wrist closest to her.

The first thing she noted was the coldness of his skin - all he had on were thin sweatpants, and his feet were bare as well. Not only had they physically assaulted him, but they'd half-frozen him, as well. The second thing she noticed was his pulse. It was slow and unsteady, but it was there.

"Got a pulse," She murmured to Coulson. "Barely."

Then she felt it, suddenly: nothing creeping into her consciousness like it was trying to hide behind her own thoughts and emotions - this was a barrage.

She yanked her hand back to herself immediately, holding her breath as the wave passed through her and faded away. She wasn't sure what to call it. He was in such pain that his entire mind and body was filled with it. It was leaking out of him; literally as blood, and also as that other-ness that existed within the skin-touch space.

"Let's get him out of here," Coulson urged, shifting beside Mace so he could grasp one of his arms and lift him up. "Daisy!" He gave her an incredulous look as he half-struggled beneath Mace's weight, and Daisy just stared at them for a moment. Everything within her was shouting at her not to touch him again, not to subject herself to the same anguish that he was feeling - but he needed her help. Coulson couldn't carry him all the way back to the jet alone.

She gritted her teeth, took a breath, and grabbed onto Mace's other arm, helping Coulson to hoist him up. She threw his arm across her shoulder as she held one hand against his back and the other against his stomach, keeping him steady.

She hissed out a long breath in pain, unable to contain it as she was once more hit with that barrage. Fuck, as quiet as he was, he was in a serious trouble.

"Here, lean him towards me a bit," Coulson suggested, thinking that she had breathed out like that because of the size difference between them. "Just help me keep him steady." He curled his other arm around Mace's waist, hugging him closer to himself as he took more of his weight.

"Fuck," She couldn't help but curse; her body aching all over, "Just keep walking to the plane." She ordered tersely. She bit her lip as her ribs seemed to hurt increasingly worse until it felt like needles stabbing inside of her. Her bones throbbed, her shoulder burned, and her face felt like the Hulk had used her as a punching bag. She idly wondered if her skin would actually bruise, to match Mace's, considering how _real_  the pain felt to her.

By the time they made it into the hall that led to the exit door, it was too much. She felt like she was on the edge of passing out.

"Wait!" She blurted, unable to keep going anymore. "Wait, wait, take him, take him - please - "

"Okay, what," Coulson wrapped both of his hands carefully around Mace's waist and leaned partially against the wall, watching Daisy with concern as she stumbled away, and dropped to her hands and knees.

"Fuck!" She hissed, breathing heavily as she tried to quickly push the pain out of her system. It wasn't her pain, she didn't need to keep it, it wasn't real to her. She felt like she couldn't breathe. Were her ribs actually broken, somehow?

"Daisy, what's wrong?" Coulson worried. "Are there quakes? Is it your powers?"

She lifted her head to look at them, still trying to breath, just as Mace barely managed to shift his head a bit and squint one of his eyes open.

_I'm sorry. -m so sorry._

_Not your fault._

_Hurts._

He whimpered, both in her head and aloud, and she clenched her jaw tightly as she pushed herself to her feet. While her muscles still ached - her upper body, particularly - the excruciating pain had drifted away somewhat once she'd stopped touching him, and she knew that it would again. Mace's pain, however, would not. Not without medical help.

"It's okay Jeffrey," Coulson soothed, having heard Mace's whimper. "We've got you. We're gonna get you home, okay?"

Daisy settled her shaking palm against Mace's chest, imagining, as intently as she could, a picture of peace. After a moment, Mace's chin dropped against his chest again, and she re-situated herself against his side, his arm draped over her shoulders once more.

"Let's go." She grunted, and Coulson obligingly straightened and they once more began their trek to the Zephyr. She tried to keep her mind solely focused on peace, and numbness, and not get overwhelmed by Mace's pain again, but by the time the plane was in sight she was breathing heavily again, and a few tears had uncontrollably slipped down her cheeks.

"Daisy, talk to me!" Coulson called out in alarm, and she opened her eyes, realizing they'd drifted shut. "Are you hearing some kind of frequency?"

"No," She murmured, needing to keep her thoughts focused. She could figure out an excuse for him later, once Mace was secured in a medical bed and she wasn't touching his skin anymore.

It was beautiful, and horrible, for this to be the first time she touched his naked chest. She found him gorgeous, but he was covered in bruises, blood, and dirt. Bones were broken and there was a particularly deep cut on his chest closest to Coulson's side that was oozing blood. There were a few sections of skin where she could see clear imprints of the boots that the Watchdogs were wearing.

More than that - while she knew from his thoughts that he'd never stood down against the torture - he had reached the point of acceptance that he was going to die. He _had_  almost died. Daisy felt all of that, and while she had been through her share of torture and near-death experiences, feeling someone else's was...

Feeling Mace's, who was her soulmate - it was something that cut her deeper than anything she'd ever felt before. She felt near agony, and still in terror that he wasn't going to make it.

"Oh, no," Simmons noticed them from near the loading ramp of the plane, and she ran over to meet them, trying to get a look at Mace while they basically carried him into the plane. Daisy could sense that he'd fallen completely unconscious, now, and his feet were dragging more. "Director..." Simmons hummed softly under her breath, gently touching his brow before sliding her hand back and lifting his head up slightly to get a clearer look at him. "His injuries are extensive..." She noted worriedly, beginning her visual examination immediately as she guided them, walking backwards, toward the medbay in the Zephyr.

"Broken ribs," Daisy managed, and Simmons glanced at her. "Lots of bruising... beaten all over. _Everything hurts_. ... Knife wound probably needs stitched, still bleeding..." She breathed deeply through her nose, and Simmons' eyebrow quirked upward. "Pretty bad concussion."

"Daisy," Coulson groaned lowly, knowingly, and he stopped moving. She had to stop as well, lest she pull awkwardly on Mace's body. "Let go."

"What are you - "

"I've got him, Daisy. Let go of him." Coulson ordered her gently, but seriously. She ducked her eyes as she slowly did as requested, and Simmons took her place. Coulson and Simmons both gave Daisy a wary look, before they continued on toward the medbay.

Daisy closed the Zephyr's loading ramp, and then slumped to the floor, relishing in the cool metal of the floor while the pain slowly eased from her body. She was still crying, a little bit, but she couldn't help it. She'd been injured in recent months, but not like this; not in a while. Plus, Mace wasn't trained for torture. He didn't have any tricks to turn off or ignore his pain receptors. Honestly, Daisy was amazed that he'd lasted as long as he did.

Slowly, eventually, Mace's pain faded away from her, and she pushed herself back to her feet. She took a deep breath, and scrubbed her hands over her face, before heading toward the medbay.

"Daisy," Coulson stopped her in the middle of the lab, before she could get close enough to the med-pod to even see what Simmons was doing. Coulson put his arms on her shoulders, physically halting her progress.

"Let me go, I need to,"

"No, Daisy," Coulson told her firmly. "Let Jemma do her thing. Come sit down,"

"I don't need to _sit_ ," Daisy shouted, shoving his hands off of her. She surprised herself a bit, with her sudden flame of anger, and they simply stared at one another for a moment.

"How long have you known?" Coulson asked her, compassion in his eyes. Daisy scowled; that was exactly why she hadn't wanted anybody to know about her and Mace. She didn't want their pity. "That Jeffrey is your soulmate," He added, as if it needed clarifying.

"Months." Daisy folded her arms across her chest. Coulson looked surprised, but then after a moment of thought, he nodded.

"I thought you were acting more friendly."

"What, I can't have _friends_?" She scoffed, and he raised his eyebrow.

"With Jeffrey Mace?" He returned pointedly. "The two of you are practically opposites."

"We have more in common than you think." She argued, and his other eyebrow lifted to join the first, and he shook his head.

"I don't really need to know,"

"We aren't like _that_!"

"Daisy, you're _soulmates_. I'm not judging, obviously. You can't control who your soulmate is."

"We aren't together," She insisted. "We just manage the lovesickness; he’s just the Director and I’m just...me." He furrowed his brow, and thought silently for another minute.

"Since you know more than us on exactly how he's feeling, I can't lie to you Daisy. It's not good." He finally said, speaking gently. She steeled her nerves, and nodded shortly. "Jemma is doing everything she can, but depending on how hard and how many times those Watchdogs aimed for his head... we won't really know about any brain damage until possibly the morning."

"He was mostly unconscious at the factory," Daisy admitted, "Didn't have many clear thoughts, anyway."

"I wouldn't expect him to," Coulson noted, looking over at the med-pod. "He held out against a lot. He's strong, even without the serum." Coulson looked back at her. "He'll fight."

"Will he?" She murmured without thinking, and Coulson's brow twitched. "He'd accepted it, Phil." She met his gaze directly, letting him see how worried she truly felt. "He'd accepted that he would die on the floor in that cell while those men beat him to death."

"But he didn't die, and he knows that we found him. He knows you're here - remember," Coulson gripped her arm, for emphasis, "skin-touch goes both ways. He'll fight for you."

"He's not in love with me," Daisy rolled her eyes. "We're not some fairytale, bring-one-another-back-from-the-brink-of-death, kind of couple. We’re not a couple at all."

"You're soulmates, Daisy. That's more than partnership, more than romance. It's powerful."

Daisy wasn't sure how to respond to that. It was still a rather romantic view of soulmates; though Coulson always had been a romantic, so she wasn't necessarily surprised by his words.

"Why don't you go take a good long shower," Coulson suggested softly, "I'll stay down here with Simmons. When you're finished, perhaps she'll be done with him and you can see him."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Daisy glanced toward the med-pod hesitantly. Now that she'd had a moment to pause and think, she knew that she wouldn't be able to resist touching him, but she also didn't want to overload her own body with all of his pain again. Coulson seemed to know exactly what she was worried of.

"Simmons pumped him full of pain meds, Daisy. His brain is probably in la la land, so you won't get any of his pain again through the touch." Coulson assured her.

"Won't *I* be in la la land, too, then?" She raised her eyebrow, and Coulson laughed softly.

"Maybe, I don't know. Is that such a bad thing? Considering you were actually feeling the affects of his torture, earlier. I didn't even know that was possible..."

"I didn't, either." She agreed. She sighed, and then nodded at him. "A shower sounds really good." She admitted, and he squeezed her arm supportively. Before he could pull away, she quickly wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close for a hug. He returned the gesture immediately, holding her tightly for a long minute.

She didn't cry until she was standing beneath the warm spray of the shower.

She and Mace might not be in love with one another, but Coulson was right. They were deeply connected. It didn't matter how she thought she felt about him. She'd almost lost him, and it had wreaked havoc within her.

 

**\------**

 

Whether it was Simmons' or Coulson's idea, they'd put Mace in one of the wider beds, having obviously left careful room for another body even with the wires that connected him to the various machines in the room. Daisy made a face at that, but only briefly; she was honestly more relieved than annoyed. She didn't care what Coulson or Simmons thought right now. Her only focus was the man in front of her.

"Why do the men in my life always end up here," She murmured rhetorically, touching her fingers against the edge of the mattress and remembering Lincoln. She closed her eyes, and let the memory drift away on its own. She opened her eyes and looked down at Mace's relaxed expression.

Even with the bit of cleaning up that Simmons had done, he looked like shit. He had stitches in various spots on his head, his right eye was still swollen mostly shut, and his split lip had scabbed over. He was basically one giant bruise, and that was just focusing above the shoulders.

The wound on his chest had been cleaned up and stitched closed, covered in a bandage, and there was also some kind of loose wrap around his torso as well. Touching it gently, Daisy realized it was not a compression bandage but some kind of cold treatment, probably to replace the need for ice for his ribs. They'd replaced the thin sweats for a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D. issue heavy-duty sweatpants, and put socks on his feet too, which made Daisy feel better. At least he wouldn't get too cold, maybe.

She reached for the bedsheet to lift it up higher over his chest, but then hesitated. Simmons and Coulson had obviously figured that Daisy would want to curl up next to him, even if Daisy herself hadn't considered it. While that annoyed her, she thought of the way her lovesickness had kept her craving to touch Mace's face, and press their foreheads together, and how after she had finally done that, they'd both felt a level of peace they hadn't before.

She was too exhausted to fight it this time, anyway. She toed her shoes off and gingerly sat on the edge of the mattress, sliding one leg beneath the sheet and then the other. She moved as slowly as possible so that she didn't jar Mace's body too much, and shifted onto her side before pulling the sheet up over them both.

She curled her lower arm around her stomach and rested her upper arm against her own waist, reaching just enough for him that her hand lay atop his hip. She was careful to keep her fingers just beneath the waistband of his sleep pants so that she was touching bare skin below the edge of the cold-wrap around his torso, and not putting any weight near his cracked and broken ribs.

She still wasn't sure what she would feel through their skin-touch, but she wanted him to know that he wasn't alone. She slept with her face turned toward him, her nose and mouth a breath away from his shoulder.


	8. Chapter 8

Mace stood shirtless in front of the mirror, grimacing as he touched his chest near the stitches he'd just revealed. He was in the process of changing out his bandages, and getting his first good look at himself for the first time since his rescue a week ago. Unknown to him, Daisy stood behind him on the other side of the room, and looked at him through the mirror. His bruises were still apparent but beginning to fade, more of a nasty green color than the dark purple they had been. His head wounds had healed enough that those stitches had been removed already, and he only now had to make sure that he remembered to use the cream that Simmons had given him to negate the probability of scarring.

As Simmons had feared, his head had taken a beating after he'd been left alone with the Watchdogs, and he still had a lingering headache that they knew had nothing to do with lovesickness. He had trouble paying attention to conversations, and keeping his focus. He seemed to have no trouble speaking or understanding speech, but Simmons had said that his cognitive processing ability had severely slowed. His mind itself would be okay, but he would have trouble expressing verbally and physically probably for a while.

Because of this, they kept him completely out of the process as they continued to gather intel on their web of connections that surrounded Nadeer. He wasn't allowed to leave the base; in fact, he was rarely allowed to leave his room for very long at a time. Too much stimulation overwhelmed him, and Simmons was adamant that he take his recovery slow to ensure the best possible outcome. They did everything they could to keep him as stress free as possible.

"Daisy?" Mace asked in surprise, his eyes meeting hers in the mirror's reflection. She refocused and stepped quickly toward him, wrapping her arms around him from behind, avoiding his injuries as she set her hands against his chest. She clutched on to him as she pressed her forehead against the back of his shoulder.

_Relief._

"What's wrong?" He wondered quickly, holding her hands against his chest as he turned his head to look over his shoulder. She shook her head, her forehead rolling against his skin, and simply held on to him as tightly as she dared.

She hadn't touched him since sleeping next to him that first night. Between his injuries and the drugs, he didn't know that she'd been there. It hadn't been long enough since then for phase one to rear it's head again, but that didn't matter. She had been and still was worried for him, and she didn't like that. She didn't like that she'd come so close to losing another person that she...

She might not love him like she had Lincoln, but she still cared about him.

"Daisy," Mace whispered softly, soothingly, and he brushed his thumb overtop of her knuckles. He was picking up on her thoughts pretty clearly. "I'm okay."

"Don't do anything like that ever again!" She ordered him, anger bristling through her. She didn't stop holding onto him, though. "Do you understand me? Don't you ever do anything so _stupid_ ,"

"It's my _job_ ," He protested, and she tugged her hands from beneath his, stepping back from him, and he turned around to face her.

"You're not a field agent!" She reminded him. "And even if you were you don't ever go after a high-profile target _alone_ ,"

"I didn't think that I was _alone_ ," He reminded her, knowing of what happened even if his own memory surrounding the event was muddled. "They, they...” He grunted in annoyance and gestured his hands vaguely in the air at her, unable to draw forth the word that he wanted. “- Your voice! I’d heard it!"

"You still went after her without visual confirmation," Daisy shook her head. "You assumed that I was behind you and you didn't _look_  before you just - " She threw her hands up in frustration, and pressed her lips together.

"I'm sorry," He insisted softly, and gripped her upper arms. "I'm sorry," He slid his hands up until he was cradling the back of her head, and pulled her close again to drop his forehead down against hers. "I'm sorry."

She closed her eyes as they breathed together, and rested her hands against his waist, eventually allowing her anger and frustration to fade away as she felt the sincerity of his apology.

"I'll be more careful," He murmured. Eventually, she nodded, though they still quietly held onto one another for a few more minutes, finding comfort together.

 

**\------**

 

A week later, Daisy walked into the labs to get Fitz to tweak her gauntlets a little bit, and found Mace finishing a check-up with Simmons.

"I'd say you've still got two more weeks until those ribs are back to one-hundred percent, but you're healing up nicely, Director. I would even say that you can start working again, just a couple of hours at a time though." Simmons confirmed with a smile, and Mace hesitantly smiled with relief.

"Wish it'd happen a little faster," He grumbled, carefully shrugging on his undershirt before he stood and reached for his button-up. Daisy couldn't resist stepping into the room and giving him a little once-over; he might piss her off from time to time but she had _eyes_. "Daisy!" He noticed happily, and Simmons glanced up in surprise. She then gave Daisy a little smile, and Daisy narrowed her eyes at her. It wasn't Mace's fault he couldn't quite remember to control his immediate response to things.

She'd already made Simmons and Coulson both promise not tell another soul about her and Mace. She didn't want it becoming a big deal and she definitely didn't want to be dealing with other people's opinions over it. His newfound impulsiveness didn't really help them any, and it was one of the reasons they wouldn't allow him to do any media interviews or meet with anyone directly.

"I'll give you two the room," Simmons murmured, slipping by Daisy back into the main lab.

"Wait, I'm just here for Fitz to take a look at my gauntlets," Daisy protested, holding up her armor. Simmons' smile only widened, and she took them from her and said,

"I'll take them to him."

Daisy sighed heavily as Simmons left them alone, and she turned back toward Mace.

"What's up?" He wondered, tucking his shirt into his trousers. Daisy tried not to watch that too closely as she took a step further into the room.

"Nothing," She admitted, "I really was just here to get my gauntlets looked at. Fitz likes to check them out every so often, make sure they're up to par."

Mace nodded approvingly as he finished buttoning up the top of his shirt, and then pulled his collar up before reaching for his tie. Daisy watched him with open curiosity now, as he slowly tied the knot, looking down to watch his movements carefully. His hand-eye coordination wasn't the best, either, though it had definitely improved over the last week. He furrowed his brow halfway through the knot, and paused.

"Can I?" Daisy requested, half because she did want to, and half because she knew he would get frustrated if she made it sound like he couldn't do it without help.

"Uh, okay," He sighed, dropping his hands to his sides, and she stepped closer to him. He lifted his chin as she pulled out the knot he'd started and re-did it herself, slowly but surely. She figured she might as well be honest with him, especially since he was feeling rather vulnerable at the moment. "I'm happy you're getting better." She looked up into his eyes to give him a half-smile as she straightened the knot of his tie. "And - " Standing this close to him, she was surrounded by the scent of his cologne, and she was surprised to find that she had missed that. He finally didn't smell like a hospital anymore. "You smell good." She blurted in surprise. That hadn't been what her sentence was going to originally end like, but there it was.

Mace laughed softly.

"Thank you," He replied a little smugly, and she quickly stepped back a friendly distance away from him, letting her hands fall to her sides. His expression was warm, and her stomach fluttered at the look in his eyes.

"I uh, gotta go check on my Quake suit," She told him, jerking her thumb back toward the labs. He nodded, that fond look still on his face, and she turned on her heel and went to find Simmons.

She was suddenly feeling a little too warm, herself, and did her best not to mull over the way she caught him running his hand down the length of his tie as she left.

 

**\------**

 

"Where are we on Nadeer?" Mace asked of the team gathered in his office. "And Richards?" He was continuing to get better day by day, and by now Simmons had given him the all-clear to return to his Directorial duties - so long as he kept an honest watch on himself, and sought her out should he experience even the smallest of relapses in his condition.

"Roxxon is..." Mack trailed off for a moment and raised his eyebrow. He gestured toward the large screen that was filled with various reports, most of them with lines literally blacked out.

"Hella protected." Daisy summarized, pursing her lips as she folded her arms across her chest. "Not only was I informed that the phone call between Nadeer and Richards isn't incriminating enough, but we _also_  need more evidence before we can even consider getting a court order to dig into Richards legally." She glanced at Mace, giving him a look. "You know, I can use my Rising Tide contacts..."

"No," Mace immediately shook his head. "We're talking about one of the biggest conglomerates in the world. I wouldn't put it beyond them to discover the Rising Tide looking into them, and then make the connection to you. We need to be _entirely_  by-the-book on this whole operation."

Daisy sighed, but nodded in acceptance.

"Party pooper," She muttered, and he briefly smirked. Coulson's eyes did a weird thing as he watched them, and Daisy hurriedly kept the conversation focused on the point. If one of the others caught Coulson giving them that look, it would raise questions. "As much as they're protecting Richards, I'm led to believe that he's more than just a mere accountant for them. While _we_  know that he manages their deal with the Watchdogs, I figure he's also in charge of a few more partnerships that probably wouldn't look too good on Roxxon's expense reports."

"What if," Mace mused thoughtfully, " _We_ made a deal with Roxxon?" Everyone else in the room stared at him in silence for a moment.

"Excuse me?" Daisy wondered incredulously, though she figured asking him if he had lost his damn mind would be a little too uncouth, for the time being.

"Hear me out," He requested quickly, before they could voice protestations. "We show them the proof we have that Richards funds the Watchdogs for all their nefarious activities, we show them our proof of Richards' connection with Nadeer, and we threaten to expose it all to the press. Perhaps they cut Richards loose, let us have him."

"So... you're all for taking down the middle man?" Coulson wondered, not entirely believing that. "I thought we wanted to shut down the entire organization."

"The Watchdogs." Mace clarified pointedly. "And this entire... vendetta that Nadeer seems to have against me - against S.H.I.E.L.D. Roxxon is gigantic and starting up a war with them is just... we don't have the manpower or the funds for that. We would also be affecting a lot of innocent people; taking away their jobs, et cetera."

"Did you just say 'et cetera'? In a verbal conversation?" Daisy made a face like she'd eaten something sour, and Mace gave her a wry look.

"Watchdogs probably got their hands in a few different pockets, but by the numbers Daisy and I have seen, Roxxon is by far their biggest supplier." Mack noted thoughtfully. "If they pull out, the Watchdogs are pretty much left scrambling."

"And open for a more direct take-down." Mace nodded, pleased that at least a few of them were following along.

"I like it." May commented simply.

"If we show them our hand, we won't have anything to take them on in the future." Coulson pointed out.

"They've had dirty players since the inception of their company. We'll get them eventually." May reasoned with a shrug. "One battle at a time, Phil."

"And the other accounts that Richards manages? If they're so hell-bent on protecting him now, what makes you think that they will take our deal, and cut him loose?" Coulson noted.

"Because Mack and I - legally - " Daisy glanced toward Mace briefly. "have photos of Nadeer and Richards meeting together in secret as early as two years ago. While we don't know what they were talking about, it could be argued that perhaps Roxxon paid to get her into office. Either way, it's not a great visual presentation for Thomas Richards."

"And Nadeer isn't as protected as Richards. We were able to use her financials to trace a connection to a bank account in the Cayman's - and you wouldn't guess who the second account-holder is." Mack informed them.

"Shockley?" Mace guessed. "Getting paid for his terrorist attacks?"

"Felix Blake." Mack corrected him, and Mace and Coulson both made the same surprised expression. "Well, a known alias of Blake's. Dummy picked something he'd used in an old S.H.I.E.LD. operation a couple of decades ago."

"A couple of decades? Come on, man." Coulson complained softly. "Way to make me feel old."

"Blake wouldn't do that on accident." May furrowed her brow, and Coulson nodded in agreement as the two shared a look. "He was always a sharp agent."

"Are you suggesting that he wanted to be caught?" Daisy wondered.

"Perhaps not _caught_ , per se, but seen." May guessed, and Coulson nodded again.

"He's always been a bit of a show-off, too." Coulson said dryly. "I mean, he created a damn hologram of himself to gloat to me after I figured out that he was the leader of the Watchdogs."

"So he's probably already in the wind, again." Daisy sighed. "I haven't had much luck being able to follow his side of the money trail. Once it hits the Islands, it disappears." She shrugged, though, and added, "Nadeer hasn't been so careful, lately. Various plane tickets to countries with non-extradition policies - but they're all fake."

"So do you know where she actually is?" Mace asked, and Daisy grinned at him.

"Yeah. Honestly, the last place any of us would look."

"Her old property," Mace realized, understanding Daisy's expression. "Where she'd been hiding her brother Vijay."

"Before you get too excited, we don't suggest just storming the place," Mack interjected, and Mace furrowed his brow.

"Why not, with what we have already?" Mace wondered. "We have enough on her, at least, right? We can get the rest on Richards after we have Nadeer in custody."

"As deep as she's embedded with the Watchdogs, the house could be fortified like a castle. I suggest long-range recon, first. Get a look at as much of the place as we can, before we go in on foot. I don't want to be surprised by _anything_." Daisy explained, and May nodded in approval.

"Nadeer plays dirty. We should expect it to only get worse, the more she feels threatened." May said.

"Plus as far as we know, Richards still trusts Nadeer right now. Or, as much as he ever did, anyway. She wanted to play bait before - why don't we use her at her own game?" Mack added.

Mace nodded thoughtfully, and then rested his fingertips atop his desk.

"Alright. Let me figure out who I need to talk to from Roxxon. Daisy, can you put together a file on Richards that I can show them? May and Coulson, if you don't mind heading up the recon detail, spare no expense. I'll get in touch with Talbot, as well, and see what the military can let us borrow. Mack..." Mace paused, and then asked sheepishly, "Do you mind helping me re-explain all of this to Talbot?"

"No problem." Mack nodded. "Though do I get a pay raise for co-Directoring?"

"To be determined upon Talbot's reaction to all of this." Mace replied dryly, and Mack grinned.

 

**\------**

 

The plan moved pretty quickly after that. They had an entire team of agents briefed on the mission and preparing to take down Nadeer, and as they were all going through final checks of equipment, Mace walked in to the hangar decked out in his Patriot suit.

"Woah, woah," Daisy noticed him as the casual murmuring had died down upon his entrance in the hangar. "What do you think you're doing?"

“No more doing stuff separately. From on, if we're gonna fuck things up, we're gonna do it together.” He informed her firmly, and she glanced at the fading remnants of the injuries on his face before nodding. He wanted to be there when Nadeer was arrested; Daisy couldn't fault him for wanting that bit of revenge.

If she'd been almost-assassinated and then beaten-and-tortured to almost-death, she'd personally want far worse revenge than handcuffs and a jail cell. But that was what made Mace different than her, and honestly, it was one of the things she admired about him. He desired not simply for revenge, but for justice.

"Fine, but _be careful_. We don't need you taking any more headshots any time soon." She warned him, and he nodded, giving her a hidden smile as he held out an Icer for her to take. She quirked an eyebrow as she took it from him, but then he reached out with his other hand and trapped her between his grasp.

"I mean that," He told her lowly, taking a half-step closer to her. His fingertips shifted to brush over hers, and she was momentarily rendered breathless by his intensity. "for more than just this mission."

_Together._

"I - " She started, unsure of what she wanted to say.

"We can discuss the details later," He promised casually, letting go of her and giving her another little smile before he stepped around her and up the Quinjet ramp.

She stared in the space he had been, and swallowed, and then quickly checked the Icer before strapping it into her holster.

The strike team all piled into the Quinjet, none of them either noticing or simply thinking nothing of the little moment between she and Mace. She sat between him and Piper on one of the jump seats, and the ride was silent as they focused on what would come.

While the team had been getting briefed on the mission, Roxxon had (as Mace predicted) taken up the offer to cut the Watchdogs, Nadeer, and even Richards completely out of their hands. It terrified them all to know that the company immediately seemed to have a replacement for Richards regarding any of the other accounts he was in charge of, but that wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D.'s particular battle at this time.

Hopefully, the push-back at Nadeer's property wouldn't be too big. They wanted to bring her into custody quickly, and not let her know that they already had pretty much everything they needed on Richards. They would let her cut him out on her own, and thus perhaps more easily persuade her to help them catch him. Daisy bet that if Nadeer sniffed even the hint of a lower charge or even immunity, she would do whatever she needed to. And as long as Richards still trusted that Nadeer hadn't actually been caught yet, he might be willing to meet with her again in person. She would be wired, at that point, and S.H.I.E.L.D. could catch him red-handed as the two discussed their Watchdog plans.

Because of the recon May and Coulson had done, facilitated by some handy satellites borrowed from Talbot's people, the team was more than ready to quickly and efficiently take care of all the guards posted on the exterior of the property. They had more than enough intel on everyone inside the house, as well, but by then the Watchdogs were aware that they were under attack, and began fighting back.

Two of their own agents were injured, but nothing life-threatening, and Daisy focused on cornering Nadeer while the others made sure all of her ‘security detail’ were taken out to the lawn and handcuffed. She'd lost track of Mace a minute or two ago, but she could hear him giving orders over the comms line, so she didn't worry about him.

She found Nadeer upstairs, in one of the bedrooms, a gun in her hand pointed toward the doorway.

"Daisy Johnson." Nadeer laughed as Daisy stepped into the room. "Careful. Another step and I'll kill you. I'll kill you. Dead." Her smile immediately fell away, and Daisy's tongue darted against her lips as she used her peripheral vision to check the room. "You came up here alone? How reckless. Of course, I've been saying you were reckless for _months_  now, so really I'm not so surprised."

"Put the gun down, Ellen. It's over." Daisy informed her, but her aim never wavered as she kept the barrel pointed toward Daisy's chest.

"It's not over," Nadeer argued intently, "until you, and all of your kind, are _dead_."

_"Daisy? Report."_ May's voice sounded over the comms, but Daisy didn't respond, keeping her attention solely focused on the Senator.

"Do you realize just how many people you're talking about?" Daisy pointed out incredulously. "You're talking about _genocide_."

"And I have the means to do it!"

_"Daisy? Give me your status."_ May asked again, her tone a little sharper.

_"Anyone have eyes on Nadeer, yet?"_ Mace's voice asked.

_"Two heat signatures in an upstairs room on the right. Neither moving. Looks like one of them has a gun."_ Fitz answered.

_"Daisy, if that is you, do not shoot Nadeer,"_ May warned.

_"I'm going up,"_

_"Mace, don't - "_

Daisy ignored the quick argument that was escalating over the comms. She knew that they would have to tie him down or Ice him to keep him from coming upstairs. She only hoped that he was coming with some firepower.

"Daisy!" Mace's voice called out down the hall, and Nadeer's eyes flickered toward the doorway behind Daisy. Daisy stepped forward in her moment of distraction, but Nadeer just as swiftly jerked her gaze back toward Daisy, and pulled the hammer back on her pistol.

"Another step and all your boss is gonna find is your brain matter staining my carpet." Nadeer threatened.

Daisy stared at her in surprise, the woman's tone causing her to stop moving more than the words themselves. This was _not_  the same timid, all-bark-and-no-bite woman they had confronted in this house a couple of months ago. Whatever had happened between then and now, it was more than just ordering the hit on Mace, or planning to blow up her own office. Whatever she'd done on top of all of that, she was no longer able to have such a calm facade hiding her hatred for Inhumans.

"The truth is already out there, you know," Daisy pointed out, careful not to gesture her hands and make Nadeer assume that she was going to use her powers. < _You are the weapon._ > "How do you expect to hide this violent fanaticism from the public?"

"Simple," Nadeer smirked, "It's a hoax. S.H.I.E.L.D. is biased and wants any excuse to quiet me - so they fashioned up a ridiculous conspiracy theory."

"Nadeer," Mace started to warn as he stepped into the room beside Daisy, but Nadeer rather quickly put both of her hands around the butt of her weapon and made sure he could see how zeroed in she was on Daisy.

"One more step and I'll shoot you, too, Director. Don't think I won't."

"What?" Mace pretended to look affronted, and held his hands up at shoulder-level. Daisy inwardly sighed - of course he hadn't come with his weapon drawn. That man seriously needed way more training if he wanted to keep coming out on missions. "You would seriously shoot two American heroes?"

“Heroes?" Nadeer snorted. "You're a liar, and she's a freak," Nadeer snarled. “I'll be doing the world a great favor.”

Mace shifted to stand in front of Daisy, putting himself between the gun and her. Nadeer didn’t flinch, keeping her pistol trained on his face, and he tilted his chin up defiantly, sneering down at her.

“If you put even one scratch on her, I will destroy you.” He warned her darkly, speaking through his teeth. “Politics be damned. I will tear you apart.”

His fists were now clenched by his sides, and Daisy wrapped her hand around one of them, making sure that her bare fingertips touched his, even with their gloves. _Calm down. Don't rile her up any further. I’m okay._

“Such brutal violence is unlike you, Director.” Nadeer mused blithely, as if she really knew him. “You’ve always been particularly protective over this specific agent, Jeffrey. It makes one wonder why that is.”

She pointedly dropped her gaze down to their hands, before looking back into his eyes. Her smirk widened with something like triumph, and Daisy drew from Mace's strength, needing it to keep herself calm as well.

"Want to know something about soulmates? It isn't always between lovers." Nadeer began to explain, and both Daisy and Mace furrowed their brows at her sudden change in tone, wondering where she was going with this. "It's rarer, but, been known to be discovered between best friends, cousins, even immediate siblings. That's difficult for most people to understand - but soulmates are not always romantic in intention. Still, it can certainly make things awkward, especially if you let too much time go without skin contact. Reading one another's mind can get a little too personal at times, too - but I'm sure you know that." She smiled sweetly, but that smile quickly dropped. "Brothers and sisters can be soulmates. Most of the awkwardness is avoided as long as you're strict about your handshake schedule." She laughed an odd sound, and Daisy glanced at the back of Mace's head worriedly. "When your soulmate dies, you feel it. You _know_  it's happened, even if you aren't around to see it. ... Murder is worse. It's a brutal feeling. The feeling that something deep and internal has been  _stolen_  from you, and you can’t ever get it back."

"You killed your own brother." Mace realized in quiet, appalled anger.

"My brother was an abomination. I did what had to be done." Nadeer retorted.

"You murdered your own soulmate." Daisy breathed in horror.

"You will feel that indescribable pain. Before I kill you, too." Nadeer nodded, and time seemed to slow as Daisy's training kicked a new burst of adrenalin through her veins. Nadeer's finger began to squeeze on the trigger of her gun, and Daisy thrust her hand out, aiming her powers at the weapon as she pushed her shoulder into Mace's ribs as hard as she could.

The gun fired, and then rattled apart, falling to pieces within the Senator's hands as Mace stumbled to the side. The bullet sliced over the top of Daisy's shoulder and she flinched back, dropping her hand immediately and lifting her left to clasp over the wound. Blood seeped through her fingers - the bullet had cut deep, but at least it had only been a graze.

Nadeer looked down at her now empty hands, and what remained of the gun on the floor, then back up toward Daisy. Her hands were shaking, and for once she looked truly terrified.

"I didn't know you could do that..." She murmured. Her shock quickly turned back into outrage. "The people need to _know_ , you're _dangerous_ , and you shouldn't be allowed to just roam free -"

"She isn't the only one," Mace growled, and punched Nadeer in the face before she could say anything else. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, unconscious, and Mace turned toward Daisy. "Are you okay?" He asked, his brow furrowing in concern as he pushed her hand away from her shoulder and touched her wound with his own fingers.

She hissed, twisting away from him, and swatted his hand back. His concern was overwhelming, but his touch had also burned a little.

"I'm fine," She assured him. She gave him a mildly annoyed look, and reached out with her good hand and curled her fingers around the back of his neck, pulling him close so she could rest her forehead against his. Her blood smeared on his skin, but neither of them cared. "I thought you were really going to hurt her, for a minute there." She admitted softly.

"Me, too." He replied in the same tone, relief filling him from their touch the same that it was filling her. They stood that way for a full minute, and then he straightened and looked down at the unconscious Senator on the ground. "Call for a retrieval while I find something to bind her hands with? Let's get her in containment before she slithers away again."

Once that was finished, Daisy sat next to him on the front steps while they recovered from the quick adrenalin drop, their prisoner propped up against the pillar to his right, still unconscious. They could still hear a few agents nosing about the house, checking for any more damaging material or hiding Watchdogs. Everyone else was securing the Quinjet for transport of their prisoners back to base. Daisy and Mace were left alone.

"She's going to tell people, you know." Daisy mentioned, looking out into the distance. The property was eerily quiet without the pounding boots of Watchdogs or the sound of a gunfight filling the air. "About us."

"People would've found out, eventually." He murmured quietly, but he sounded very unsure about it. "Anyway, after more than four months of her deteriorating rhetoric, and the proof of her collusion with the Watchdogs, she's lost a lot of supporters. Most people will probably write her off as making up more lies about S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Is that how you want to spin it?" Daisy asked. "That it's a lie?"

Mace looked at her.

"We've been doing that for almost a year, now."

"We've side-stepped," Daisy corrected. "Avoided the topic. No one has actually directly implied us as one another's soulmate. We haven't had to actually _lie_  about it, yet."

"You know me, I can do the song and dance." Mace assured her, and she pressed her lips together as she debated whether or not to voice her next thought. Eventually, she did murmur,

"I also know that a performance can become a full-time thing."

His gloved hand slipped into hers, and even without skin-to-skin contact, it still felt nice. He had a very reassuring touch. She couldn't help but glance around briefly, but they were still being ignored.

"We both tried lying to ourselves about being soulmates before, remember?" He prodded her lightly, and she smirked a little and nodded. "It didn't work out so well."

The pad of his thumb brushed against her exposed knuckle, and she breathed in sharply.

_Love._

"Jeffrey," She met his eyes again, and he looked hurriedly apologetic now, realizing that too much of his emotion had travelled through,

"I'm sorry,"

She rested her other hand against the side of his face, fingers against his jaw and leather glove against his cheek. _Don't be sorry._

She leaned in, closed her eyes, and kissed him softly.

_Surprised. Amazed. Elated._

She wasn't sure if she was feeling her own emotions or his. It was probably a blend of both. They sat unmoving for a minute, and then he shifted his lips a little more firmly, and she smiled against his mouth.

Kissing was usually nice, anyway, but kissing your soulmate was something else altogether. No one had told her about this part - Mack and Elena always seemed to enjoy themselves when they kissed, but Daisy had just figured it was because they were so obviously in love with one another. Fitz and Simmons were more private about their displays of affection, and otherwise Daisy just didn't find herself in conversations about soulmates that often.

Her entire body seemed to fill with warmth in the blink of an eye, her torso twisting so that she could lean against him more fully, feel his weight against her, the hard chest plate of his armor against the fabric of her own suit. The sharp stinging in her shoulder was forgotten as one of his hands carded into her hair, his glove somewhat bulky but she didn't care.

She felt like how the women in the old movies looked like they might've felt; dizzy and weightless and unfocused on anything other than the touch of him. Exhausted as she was from using her powers, her pulse raced joyfully, and even though they hadn't yet broken their first kiss she was already eager for their next one.

Daisy softly scratched her nails against his jaw, her smile growing wider, and then he smiled too, and they finally had to stop kissing only because they were laughing. He kept his forehead against hers, in their fondest manner of skin-touch, but this time he tilted his head so their noses brushed together too.

"Daisy," He whispered, his voice like dripping honey down her spine. Their feelings for one another were building exponentially faster because of their touch, emotions bouncing off one another and twisting together and becoming overwhelmingly powerful.

_Love. Admiration. Desire._

A loud noise and a snort of laughter burst out from one of the rooms behind the open front doors of the house. Reminded that they were not totally alone on the property, Daisy sucked in a breath and pulled away from Mace, even going so far as to slide a few inches of space between them on the steps.

"It's..." She tried to start to explain how overwhelmed she felt, but he nodded seriously, staring at her with wide eyes. He could still feel what she was feeling, just as she could still feel him, although they weren't skin-touching anymore. He loved her. Fuck. Did she love him too? Or was it all just because of their soulmate connection? Or, was this just lust, on her part? After all, she'd already had to deal with fighting off daydreams of him, before. Now her body ached for him so deeply that she was terrified to just be sitting near him.

He licked his lips, and she darted her eyes toward her bent knees, smoothing her hand over her hair to make sure it wasn't too ruffled. She was so high on endorphins she felt like laughing aloud, but instead she tucked her hands together between her knees and stared resolutely ahead, keeping an eye out for an agent to come and retrieve Nadeer.

She did, however, smile widely when she noticed from the corner of her eye as he rolled his shoulders back and smoothed his own hair down. He cleared his throat quietly, and they sat in silence together as they waited for their ride back to HQ, both of them grinning like a couple of shy dorks.

She wasn't totally sure whether his feelings were genuine or whether she reciprocated them, but she was definitely sure that kissing him was very, _very_  nice.

 

**\------**

 

"Do you think that Mace might still be suffering from his T.B.I.?" Coulson asked Simmons, not far enough away in the kitchen for Daisy to keep from overhearing him.

"It's quite possible for certain side effects to last for months, even years, after a brain injury. Why do you ask?" Simmons replied, furrowing her brow.

"It's nothing really serious, I just..." Coulson smirked, and Daisy frowned as his amusement seemed to juxtapose against his concerns. "I caught him singing to himself in his office earlier."

"Well..." Simmons hesitated, and then smiled as well. "While it is kind of a surprising visual for the Director, it's not all that odd for someone to be singing, Coulson."

"You should've seen him. He was pretty into it." Coulson admitted, chuckling out loud, now.

"What was it?" She wondered, her own smile widening. Daisy was both amused and annoyed by their gossiping - but she was far too curious to know more, so she didn't bother interrupting them yet.

"That's the biggest surprise, I think," Coulson noted, and his eyes darted up to meet Daisy's. Startled that she was caught out eavesdropping, she froze and stared back at him. "It was from the late '70's, I think. Kiss You All Over?"

It took Simmons a moment, but then her smile grew more aloof, and she followed Coulson's gaze toward Daisy.

"I don't think it's his brain injury that he's suffering from, Agent Coulson." She figured, and he nodded slowly, neither of them shifting their eyes away from Daisy.

"You know, now that I think about it out loud, you're probably right." He replied, a cat-that-caught-the-canary smile on his face. Daisy frowned deeply at them both.

"You're not funny," She informed them, moving closer and pointing her finger accusatorially. "And you promised no mention of this! _Especially_  in public!"

"We're not in public," Coulson protested. "We're in the kitchen."

"Mention of what?" Simmons wondered innocently. "I haven't really mentioned anything. Have you, Agent Coulson?"

"Not at all, I only have mild concerns about the new strange habits of a dear friend,"

"You guys are both assholes." Daisy glowered, and her friends grinned wider.

"I'm not totally kidding, you know," Coulson added mildly more seriously. "I did catch him singing Exile in his office. And he _did_  seem pretty serious about the lyrics."

"When was the last time the two of you..." Simmons asked, sounding a little more like she was in doctor-mode, now. "Perhaps he's dealing with phase one. Daisy, how do you feel,"

"I feel _fine_ ," Daisy interrupted, still giving them both the glowering look. She was _definitely_  not about to tell them that she hadn't stopped thinking of kissing Mace since they first had three days ago. And if he was thinking about it, too...

Now was absolutely not the time for her to go traipsing up there alone to get a little skin-touch time in. It would probably turn into a whole lot of skin-touch, and she wasn't ready for that. Besides, they couldn't actually be in phase one again, yet. Since they had totally eradicated their lovesickness, finally, phase one would take a full month from their last contact before rearing it's ugly head.

"It's only been three days. We're fine." Daisy assured herself, out loud, and Coulson raised his eyebrows.

"Three days since what?" He prodded. "When we raided Nadeer's mansion?" He narrowed his eyes as he considered that. "Daisy, we were on a _mission_. Please tell me that the two of you did not..." He gestured his hands vaguely, and Daisy scowled at him.

"For the last time, Mace and I _are not like that_." She insisted. "I held his damn hand for a couple of minutes. Calm yourself."

She'd also kissed him, and it had been sweet and heady all at once, and she hadn't yet stopped wondering when it would happen again.

But she was definitely not going to tell these two that.

"You two really haven't even kissed, yet?" Simmons seemed legitimately surprised by that.

"How is that anybody's business?" Daisy demanded, not quite meeting either of their eyes, hoping her cheeks weren't as red as they felt warm. Great, now she was acting like a teenager with a crush.

"It's not, it doesn't really matter," Simmons hurriedly soothed, softening her tone. "I was just going to say, that if you have..."

"If I have, what?" Daisy asked carefully, narrowing her eyes.

"If you've kissed, the phases might not even matter."

"What? What does that mean? Is it possible to be rid of lovesickness forever?" Daisy jumped on that, and Simmons quickly shook her head.

"No, no that's not what I meant. Since you keep insisting that you and Mace aren't together - "

"We _aren't_ ,"

" - If you were to kiss but not, uh, anything else, then you might just crave one another constantly. Until you were to, uh..."

"Anything else." Coulson put in helpfully, and Simmons nodded. Daisy blinked at them.

"Are you yanking my chain right now?" Daisy asked dryly. "I’ve never heard of that kind of side effect before. Not that I need anymore reasons to _not_  kiss Jeffrey Mace, but, thanks for this warning,"

“Well, as far as I know, most soulmates actually get together once they discover one another. This kind of side effect isn’t that common,” Simmons replied dryly.

“Oh, come on, he's not that bad," Coulson grinned a little. "He's grown quite a lot over the last year! And honestly," He shrugged innocently, "He looks very kissable."

"Well," Daisy snorted and folded her arms over her chest. "If you want to kiss my soulmate, Phil Coulson, go ahead and be my guest."

" _I_ don't want to kiss him," Coulson retorted hotly, though she curiously noted the way his ears darkened with embarrassment, "I'm just saying,"

"We already know that you find him attractive, Daisy." Simmons said as if her words were consoling.

"I didn't know this!" Coulson interrupted in amazement, but Simmons continued over him,

"I understand your reservations about the man before, but it's perfectly normal for skin-touch to get out of hand, for things to go a little farther than planned,"

"You guys just want to figure us out," Daisy accused, pushing down her slight growing worries about craving and things getting out of control. "And I'm telling you, there's nothing to figure out. I'm sorry that we are weird and boring soulmates, but we are what we are. And we _aren't_  a couple."

"Maybe you need to tell Jeffrey that?" Coulson suggested gently, his humorous tone finally falling to the wayside.

"Jeffrey _knows_  what we are, just as I do." Daisy insisted, using his first name a bit sassily. "Look, I do appreciate the concern there - I know this... arrangement, is pretty weird and extremely difficult. But Mace and I have always been very clear about boundaries. We know what we are."

"Okay," Coulson accepted that, and then after a beat, his smirk reappeared on his face. "Still, whether it's soulmate related or not, he wants to kiss you all over, and over, again," Coulson teased, half-singing the song himself, and Daisy snorted as she pushed her hand against his chest.

"Stop being an ass," She laughed as he took a step back from her light shove.

But inside, she was breathless.


	9. Chapter 9

It took a few days of pressure and interrogation, but Nadeer eventually ‘came up with her own plan’ to indict Thomas Richards and help S.H.I.E.L.D. catch him. Daisy and May were pretty proud with themselves for twisting their interrogation enough that Nadeer honestly thought that it was all her own idea. And now that they had her cooperation, it now hinged on Richards truly trusting her enough to meet with her again.

They'd been able to keep her arrest out of the media, so the world at large still assumed that the Senator was on the run. That worked to their great advantage, and Nadeer was allowed the use of a burner phone to send Richards a coded message, dictating a meeting time and place.

"He's probably agreed to meet with me so he can kill me himself, you know." Nadeer pointed out as May secured a button camera to her coat and checked that it was in working order.

"Probably." May agreed, stoic.

"You wouldn't let me die during a sting operation, would you?" Nadeer turned a mocking pleading gaze toward Mace, who watched them with his arms folded across his chest. "You're too noble for that."

"Unfortunately." May snorted. She then looked at Mace, who nodded, and she grasped Nadeer's arm. "Let's go."

Mace turned and left the room ahead of them, meeting Daisy in the hallway, who'd been standing near the open interrogation room door.

"No one believes me about the two of you," Nadeer complained as she was led by them. "But just look at you! How unfortunate." She shook her head. "Billion dollar secrets, lies, and nepotism to boot. What a legacy you lead, _Director_."

"Why don't you go get Richards, before I change my mind about this deal." Mace threatened, only turning back toward Daisy once May nudged Nadeer in the direction of the hangar. "Nepotism," Mace glowered under his breath, shaking his head. " _You_  were here first, anyway."

"So _I'm_  the one with the nepotism charge, then," Daisy joked, and neither of them noticed May glance back toward them with brief curiosity.

 

**\------**

 

"I need to go underground, Thomas, at least until this all blows over. The Watchdogs, however, still need their funds. What do you think we should do? What does Roxxon think?" Nadeer asked the older man, feigning a barely-under-wraps panicked state.

"Blows over?" Richards repeated, and then laughed. "Oh, Ellen, I don't think this is going to blow over. Not for you, anyway." He told her consolingly. "That said, don't you worry about your boy toys. Roxxon isn't in charge of this deal - I am. And I've got it handled, I assure you."

"And what do I do in the meantime?" Nadeer demanded hotly, and he pretended to mull it over for a moment. His slow reach for the pistol in the back of his waistband was glaringly obvious to the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew spying on them, and Daisy groaned.

"This is like a bad B-movie." She complained.

"I suppose... you’ll join your brother." Richards eventually replied to Nadeer, and brandished his gun.

"Go, go! Gun!" Coulson ordered immediately, and Elena easily disarmed Richards by the time Mack was there to cuff him.

"Wait, what, I was - " Richards was completely caught off guard, though he recognized Mack from his previous arrest. "She was threatening me! I just wanted to defend myself! When she asked to meet with me, I figured it was to kill me so I brought the gun,"

"You just keep talking," Mack replied easily, grasping his elbow firmly. "Though you do have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and no doubt will be used against you in a court of law,"

Elena cuffed and guided Nadeer to the awaiting S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV as well, and while Nadeer looked beside herself that an Inhuman was touching her, she didn't put up too much of a fuss.

"We got him." Daisy breathed in amazement, looking over at Coulson. He was smiling widely at her.

"We got them both." He agreed.

"And this means we've got the Watchdogs in hand, too." Mace piped in, and Daisy turned her grin toward him. "I am a little suspicious of Richards' comment about Roxxon, though. Clearing them of any hand in this whole deal? That works out pretty well for them, doesn't it..."

"Like you said before," Coulson clasped his shoulder, "one problem at a time. And we've just knocked down multiple big ones. Let's celebrate this win."

"It's been so long since we've had one." Daisy noted, and she and Coulson shared another grin before they reached for one another and hugged tightly. "I can't half believe it," She admitted over his shoulder. "The Watchdogs have been a thorn in my side almost the very moment I found out I was Inhuman. This is..."

"It's fantastic, is what it is," Coulson finished for her, and squeezed her tighter. She laughed and nodded in agreement, tightening her hug as well.

She glanced toward Mace, and noticed that his look of triumph had drifted into something closer to hurt, and she furrowed her brow as she pulled away from Coulson's embrace.

_"Secured and good to go. Meet you back at base, bossman."_ Elena announced over the comms.

_"Give Talbot a call. He's going to want to bring them in personally, no doubt."_ Mack suggested as well.

"Good point," Coulson noted, and he pulled out his phone as he shifted toward the van doors and opened them to hop outside for a moment. "I'll give him a call, and then we'll head back."

Daisy smiled at Mace once they were alone in the back of the van, and reached for his hand, gripping it firmly. His jealousy felt sour against her skin, and her smile became a wry expression. He should know better than to be jealous of Coulson. It was probably just the possessiveness of the skin-touch.

"Thank you," She told him. "We might've been able to catch Nadeer, but we never would've gotten Richards without you."

"Wait, so now you're okay with me making deals with the bad guys?" He teased lightly, squeezing her hand in return, a fond look on his face. His back was to the cabin of the van, so he didn't have to worry about the possibility of May seeing him in the rearview mirror.

Feeling Daisy’s humor, his jealousy quickly faded away.

"Well, we'll eventually have to deal with that part, but Coulson was right. Now is the time to celebrate." She replied, aching to kiss him. Instead, she brushed her thumb against his palm, and imagined that she was, hoping that he could understand her thoughts clear enough.

The darkening of his eyes told her that he could, and his gaze zeroed in on hers as he dropped his chin a little bit. She felt breathless, again, but she couldn't look away from him. He didn't need to be singing any classic rock song for her to understand his expression right now.

_I want to kiss you all over._

Just looking at him was stoking her desire, and they were only holding hands.

"Talbot will meet us there," Coulson announced, climbing back into the van, behind Daisy. She and Mace both jumped and pulled their hands apart; Mace turning and slipping himself into the passenger side of the cabin, and Daisy settling into one of the seats in front of the comms system.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but thank God for Talbot." May announced wryly, turning the key in the ignition and putting the van into gear.

Coulson belted into the other comms seat, and raised his eyebrow at Daisy while he asked May,

"Why? Were they arguing again?" His tone was innocently curious, but his eyes were anything but. He had a very good idea of what he'd interrupted.

"Worse. I think Mace was trying to flirt - and worse than that, Daisy was going along with it."

"I was not!" Mace protested, at the same time Daisy exclaimed in the same tone,

"May!"

Coulson's smirk only widened.

 

**\------**

 

The team had squared things up and Talbot had taken both Nadeer - much to her indignant protests that she had cooperated and deserved something in return - and Richards into custody. Talbot promised to return with beer, so everyone went down to the lounge to move the furniture around and prepare some food for a little celebration party.

Daisy, per usual, waited in Mace's office until they were alone. Mace, however, spoke before she could even open her mouth.

“I... treasure you.” Mace told her quietly but sincerely, and she blinked, wide-eyed. She’d never heard that one, before. "I know the skin-touch always makes everything messy and confusing, but I just want you to know. Our plan dealing with this soulmate thing has been working fairly well... more or less... but Daisy I - I think about you all the time." His voice softened, and grew even more sincere than before. "I think of you as the sun rises, wondering what the morning light looks like against your skin. I think of you at night, wondering what it would be like to fall asleep with my arms around you."

"Mace," She startled, unprepared for this deep conversation.

"I’m tired of hiding it. I don’t want to touch you because I have to, Daisy. I want to touch you just because I want to." He looked pained, but resolute. "You’ve been on my mind long before we kissed three weeks ago."

Daisy blushed a little at the mention. She admittedly still recalled that moment rather often, though she'd since refused to allow it to happen again. In fact, he'd seemed to be avoiding such things, as well. She thought the mutual step back had been just that - a mutual agreement.

"And maybe it _is_  the soulmate connection, but, you'll always be the most important thing to me. I can't help that." He shrugged halfheartedly, remorseful.

"This is why - this is why we have to be careful," Daisy pointed out gently, quickly. "You're the _Director_. I'm your agent - you can't afford to have favorites."

"You're more than just my agent, Daisy. What we felt, when we kissed - it's true, you know it is; you felt it too."

"But we can't allow ourselves - "

"We can't control being soulmates."

" _I know_." She insisted, frustrated not at him directly, but that she'd not come prepared for this conversation to happen _now_.

"You can't stand there and pretend that you don't feel _something_  for me," He was frustrated, now, as well, "It's just the two of us in here! Why are you still trying to hide it? The song and dance was supposed to be for _everyone else_ , not for each other! We _talked_  about this!"

"It's terrifying, Jeffrey!" Daisy hissed, finally responding openly. "I've lost enough people in my life that I've become rational about it - but what I feel for you is entirely irrational. Entirely out of my control, and I _hate_  that. I think about you constantly, too, and it freaking terrifies me."

Surprised by her admission, he was silent for a long minute.

"We both know that ignoring the symptoms doesn't make the truth go away." He murmured eventually, and she huffed in annoyance.

"We tried being stoic to one another, to keep a distance. Obviously, that’s just not in you. And it’s not in me, either. I never stood a chance, Jeffrey. Against my better efforts, I fell in love with you." Daisy admitted, her tone much softer than her previous outburst.

He blinked, processing her words for a moment.

"You....?" He looked at her in hopeful amazement, and she gave him a small apologetic smile in return. His joy quickly morphed into a bit of a haughty smirk, though. "You never stood a chance?"

"Screw you." She laughed, glancing away from him, embarrassed by the power of her emotions for him. He stepped closer to her, and when she didn't step away or give him a glare, he stepped closer again and put his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him, and admitted softly, "You're ... woven into my life, now. A part of me. That feeling is there even when you aren't. I care about you because I can't help it, because you're my soulmate, but also... I care about you because I choose to. And I'm sorry that took me a while to figure out."

"Daisy," He sighed, and tilted his head to press his mouth firmly against hers. His hands drifted up to cradle her jaw, and she rested her fingers around his wrists.

His kiss was soft, but powerful. He loved her, and she loved him, and they weren’t fighting against it anymore.

“Wow,” He gasped, having to pull his mouth away from hers for a moment.

She agreed.

 

**\------**

 

As the following month was comparatively calm to the rest of the previous year, Mace focused intently on his training, and began joining operations in a little more of an active role from time to time. Coulson used his connections with Tony Stark to get Mace's Patriot suit upgraded into a powered suit of his own, so he could still be The Patriot to the public.

And the public was loving it. After Nadeer's corruption was revealed, and the Watchdogs lost their main funding, it became much easier to take them down. Public opinion on S.H.I.E.L.D., on Quake, and on Inhumans as a whole was higher than it had ever been. Things weren't perfect, but for once in a very long time, they were looking up.

Of course, the wrench got thrown into the mix eventually. They knew that it would.

Mace met Daisy in the kitchen late one evening, dropping a newspaper on top of the island counter between them. The headline read blazingly 'S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Power Couple!' and featured a large-sized photo of Daisy and Mace in their superhero suits, facing one another, their hands hanging low between them, connected only by the grasp of one finger each. Much more revealingly, their foreheads were also pressed together, and with the space otherwise between their bodies, it was very obvious how much they were leaning against one another. The image struck her to be almost more intimate than if they'd been caught kissing.

Her first reaction to the photo was dismay, but it was quickly followed by indignant anger. That was _their thing_ , and now the world knew about it! Of course it hadn't been the smartest idea to skin-touch like that in the middle of a public area, but they'd both just barely scraped death. They were too relieved to be in one another's presence to worry about the possibility of someone snapping a photo during an intimate moment.

Her anger shifted to embarrassment. She should've _known_  better. It had been a school building collapse. Of _course_  there had been reporters about.

Daisy set the paper back atop the island counter, and looked up at Mace. He smiled softly, also a little embarrassed, his hands tucked into his pockets and his shoulders slouched slightly. Daisy stepped closer to him, and lightly curled her hands around his arms, just above his elbows. He'd removed his jacket and tie earlier in the night; he was more comfortable these days to let his agents have a little glimpse of "after-hours Director", and wasn't as uptight as he used to be.

He dropped his head slightly, but then paused, his eyes searching hers. She shifted until her toes were touching the tips of his shoes, and nodded. His eyes drifted closed and he finished leaning until his forehead was resting against hers. She closed her eyes as well, and allowed their thoughts to flow freely between them, allowed her senses to focus on him and settle, until she no longer cared about the newspaper article. It was probably half written in misconception, anyway.

Standing still, they allowed their minds to imagine soothing touches; fingers stroking against skin, lips brushing, warm breath. It was intimately comforting, but in reality neither of them moved. They'd learned this trick early on once they began allowing themselves to grow closer together. It was better than being stumbled upon in the office with their tongues in each other's mouths.

Multiple pairs of footsteps sounded from the hall and then came to a halt in the common room, but Daisy ignored them. She was done hiding. She and Mace had both grown and changed over the last year, and she no longer felt disgruntled about their connection. She was not hateful of it. He was still a smug bastard at times, but he'd softened quite a bit around the edges. She loved him, despite the way he still occasionally annoyed her. She would, well and truly, die for him - just as she would any other member of her found family. Her team.

He was just the most important member to her, and the rest of the team would have to deal with that.

When she and Mace slowly parted, he wore a pleased and adoring expression. Daisy knew that he'd followed along a majority of her thoughts, and she half-smiled at him. Sometimes the extent of her emotions embarrassed her, but she trusted him with them, now.

"So it's true, then." Elena spoke up, and only after that did Daisy turn her attention toward the group that had stopped just beyond the doorway, behind the couch, to stare at the pair in the kitchen. Simmons was smiling knowingly, and Fitz and Mack both looked rather surprised. Elena gestured toward the counter where the newspaper lay. "The news."

"They happened to get a little something right."

"Blown out of proportion, as usual," Mace put in quickly, sounding very calm but Daisy could feel the panic and hesitance rising within him. He was unsure of their response and he, as usual, desperately hoped for approval.

"Is it?" Mack raised his eyebrow, and then lifted the paper in his hands to read aloud, "'Caught within one another's gaze and the intimacy of The Touch, both heroes were entirely unaware of the world around them for quite a few minutes as the dust settled and the rest of their team gathered to assess their injuries.' ... What else was it they said... oh, here: 'Reporters hung back out of respect for the pair, though we are led to believe that we may have captured the exact moment their soulbond was realized.' Then there's lots of words thrown around about 'beautiful' and 'ironic' and 'fitting'," Mack waved his hand vaguely through the air, and both Daisy and Mace unknowingly gave him the same quirked eyebrow.

"That's _a little much_ , don't you think?" Daisy pointed out incredulously, and Mack pointed at her and Mace,

"I saw you two standing in that rubble, Tremors. I wasn't sure at first, but there was definitely something. Anyway, we just walked in on you two pretty much totally oblivious to the outside world, yet again!"

"Yeah, alright," Daisy sighed, relaxing, deciding not to continue teasing her friend and just go with the simple truth, "Jeffrey and I are soulmates."

Mace straightened, and Daisy could feel how touched he was that she'd said his first name. She didn't call him that often, and especially rarely was so familiar in mixed company.

"Finally," Simmons mused, that satisfied smile still on her face, "I was running out of excuses to tell Fitz whenever he asked about you two. Though can I say, I had my suspicions for a while, even before... that night. I knew you'd occasionally suffer from lovesickness, Daisy, but I had originally considered it being because of Robbie."

"Robbie?" Mace repeated, affronted.

"That night?" Elena repeated curiously, her eyes alight with mischief. "What night? What happened?"

"Not what you're thinking," Daisy rolled her eyes. "When we rescued him from his kidnapping."

"Oh." Elena deflated in disappointment.

"And you," Simmons furrowed her brow at Mace. "As your doctor, I'm very annoyed that you never told me of your symptoms! If she was suffering from lovesickness, then surely you were, as well."

Daisy raised a pointed eyebrow in Mace's direction, and he pursed his lips, almost pouting but not quite.

"We wanted to keep it a secret. Kind of hard to do that if we're the only two on base who are lovesick. Since you'd already noted Daisy's symptoms, I just did my best to hide mine."

"Why keep it a secret?" Fitz wondered, and Daisy lifted both of her eyebrows at that question, and folded her arms across her chest.

"Really?" She replied pointedly.

"Senator Nadeer had found out before anybody else, didn't she?" Elena recalled thoughtfully, and Mace grimaced.

"She did." He admitted. "We'd hoped that people would just think her accusations were out of desperation, and we got lucky being right about that one."

"Of course we thought they were wild accusations - the two of you despised one another!" Fitz pointed out.

"There was a lot of dislike, but I don't think I ever _really hated_  him," Daisy figured, glancing over at Mace.

"I never hated you." Mace confirmed seriously, and then he smirked. "And I always found you attractive." Daisy rolled her eyes at him.

"We're discussing personalities here, Mace."

"What, don't tell me that you didn't find me attractive."

"You annoyed the hell out of me! I wasn't considering your attractiveness!" She protested.

"I can be attractive _and_  annoying." He pointed out, lifting his chin slightly as if he were proud of that.

"Yeah, you're proving that one right now." Daisy replied dryly.

"Is this you flirting? Do you need suggestions?" Elena wondered, reminding the pair that the other four were still standing in the common room. Mace squinted a smile, and shook his head.

"Listen... we just like our privacy, okay?" He reasoned with the team. "And I realize how ironic that may sound coming from me, but, can we not make a big deal out of this? Just keep things going the way they always have... no weird or awkward questions during game nights. No prying into our... relationship." He glanced at Daisy. They'd never actually used that term for it, yet.

"Mild friendly curiosity is fine," She reasoned, especially considering that she already knew about FitzSimmons and Mack and Elena's relationships. Granted, she knew way more than she wanted, sometimes. She certainly wouldn't be sharing _that_  much. She'd definitely never asked for that much detail, anyway.

"Mild curiosity of what?" Coulson wondered, catching the tail end of the conversation as he stepped around the group that still hovered in the doorway. "And what's with this weird standoff?" He wondered, pausing between the two groups. He noted the paper in Mack's hands, and the one on the counter by Daisy and Mace, and he nodded in realization. "Ohh, the soulmate thing, huh?"

"You _know_  about it?" Mack protested, and Coulson shrugged and nodded, clearly not thinking it was a big deal, and continued his trek toward the fridge.

"I've known for a while now."

"Why'd you tell him and not me?" Mack asked Daisy, sounding mildly hurt, and Daisy sighed softly.

"I didn't _tell_  Coulson - he found out. Probably about the same time Simmons did, too, I guess." She explained to her partner. He accepted that, and then looked thoughtfully between Daisy and Mace.

"So, how long exactly have _you_  guys known that you were soulmates?" Mack wondered as he tried to recall any times that he'd seen the two of them together; any signs that he might have missed.

"A... while." Daisy admitted, smirking a bit as she glanced at Mace. "I wasn't sure who was my soulmate, for a few weeks, but our first touch would have been sometime during the Eli Morrow situation."

" _That long_?" Mack complained, and Fitz made a noise of complaint as well.

"How did I not notice?" Fitz complained, and then he looked accusingly toward his own soulmate. "How could you keep this from me? I asked you _outright_  if they were soulmates!"

"I didn't lie," Simmons pointed out to him, "because when you asked me, I hadn't known for sure at the time. And anyway, it's not my secret to tell, now is it?"

"Good point," Fitz muttered. "I still can't believe I didn't notice anything, though."

"To be fair, our dislike for one another had been pretty intense, in the beginning." Daisy reminded him.

"And now? What about your liking of one another? Is that just as intense?" Elena questioned with a grin. Daisy pressed her lips together as she gave her friend a dry look, and Mace choked on his sip of beer.

"I believe that would lie _outside_  the realm of 'mild curiosity'," Coulson pointed out for them, a disturbed expression on his face as he popped off the cap to his own beer bottle.

" _Thank_  you," Daisy turned slightly toward him, and he saluted his beer in her direction before taking a drink.

"If you all are done gossiping, can I see that paper?" Coulson asked Mack, stepping closer toward the couch. "I want to check the scores."

"Oh, the Red Sox won again," Mack announced, his attention sufficiently diverted as he flipped the pages around until he found what he was looking for, and then passed the paper to Coulson. "They're still ahead, of course," He didn't sound very happy about that, either.

Elena and Simmons very quickly shifted closer to Daisy, and Simmons gave Mace an elbow.

"Go talk ball with the guys - we want to girl talk," She told him, and he protested.

"You want to talk about us being soulmates still!"

"Of course." Elena answered him calmly. "Don't worry. I highly doubt we'll be able to trick any juicy details out of this one," She glanced toward Daisy wryly, who made a face in return.

"Juicy details?" Mace repeated, looking at Daisy like that didn't make any sense. She smirked at him, and then gestured her chin in Coulson's direction.

"Go hang out with the boys, Jeffrey," She said, slightly teasingly.

"Ooo, _Jeffrey_ ," Elena hummed, and Mace narrowed his eyes at her, a faux version of his angry-Director face.

"I'm still your boss, Agent Rodriguez." He warned, but he winked at her before glancing toward Daisy once more, and then moved away from them.

Immediately, Elena and Simmons stepped even closer toward Daisy.

"Girl - come on - what's he like? Does he make that stern face in bed, too?" Elena wondered secretively, and Daisy groaned in dismay.

"That is _exactly_  the type of question I _don't_  want to talk about," She protested, and Elena prodded her side with her elbow.

"You know about me and Mack," She reasoned.

"I didn't _ask_  to!" Daisy pointed out, and Elena gave her best pleading expression. Daisy sighed heavily, and then glanced around, confirming that the three of them were sufficiently out of hearing distance from the others. "In all honesty... we haven't actually..." She made a facial expression that finished the sentence as she trailed off.

"You're joking." Simmons raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You've known for months that you're soulmates!"

"Actually, it's been a little over a year now, technically." Daisy admitted, and Elena made a vocal noise of dismay. Mack and Mace both looked over curiously, but Elena waved at them distractedly and tugged Daisy and Simmons further away from the others.

"Girl." She chided pointedly, and Daisy couldn't help but blush slightly.

"Look, we're just... we're a little nervous, okay?" She hated how she felt admitting that, but it was true. "I mean, _emotions_ , you know? And all that touching, all that skin..." She tried not to get distracted picturing it as she spoke. "What if it's all over before we've really enjoyed it? What if we're just so excited and overwhelmed by the combination of our emotions that everything happens too fast for us to really enjoy it properly?"

Elena's expression softened, and she smiled knowingly at her friend.

"That just comes with practice, hermana. Trust me. That's something we uh, all have to work through."

"Are you sure?" Daisy wondered, hesitant to feel the relief that knowledge gave her. Simmons nodded in agreement with Elena.

"Just stick together." Simmons advised. "Don't pull away right after and go sulk in your corners. Let each other know how you feel even right afterwards. It might be uncomfortable or embarrassing but trust me, open and honest communication makes everything easier in the long run."

Elena smirked devilishly, and added,

"And anyway, soon enough you'll want to keep practicing. It's addicting, chica. You won't be able to hide you're soulmates for much longer once you start banging."

"Come on!" Daisy protested. "We're not savages! Or teenagers!"

Elena raised her eyebrow dubiously, and glanced with her devilish expression in Mack's direction.

"Oh, you'll be surprised." She laughed, and gave Daisy a wink. "Watch this!"

She casually approached the guys standing by the couch, and trailed her fingers almost thoughtlessly along Mack's arm. It was something they saw her do quite often; Daisy had noticed that couples seemed to have a preferred type of skin-touch between them.

Whatever transferred between Elena and Mack must've been pretty impactful, though, because Mack's entire posture changed and he quickly made up some excuse, his hand resting on Elena's back as the couple strolled out of the common room together. Elena shot Daisy another wink before they disappeared around the corner, and Daisy snorted to herself.

She looked at Mace, observing him as he listened intently to whatever story that Coulson was telling him. He was still donning the full suit (sans jacket) this evening, with barely a wrinkle in sight even after the long day, and she found herself wondering Elena's question as well; if he made that intense expression in bed. Picturing herself being the sole focus of the level of passion he often reserved for Inhuman rights made her heart throb in her chest, and while she was still a bit nervous about having sex with him, she found herself much more interested in the practice aspect of it.

"Just go for it, Daisy," Simmons softly encouraged her. "You and I both know plenty about missed opportunity." Daisy smiled a little, and leaned her shoulder companionably against her friend.

"Thanks, Jemma... thanks for keeping our secret for us. I know that wasn't always easy." Daisy told her sincerely, and Simmons shook her head and curled an arm around Daisy's shoulders to give her a brief but firm hug.

"You're my best friend, Daisy." She replied, as if that explained everything. Then she gave Daisy another little smile, and nudged her in the direction of the couch.

Daisy was not nearly as casual as Elena had been, when she approached the men, but she only stood next to Mace, and was careful not to touch him yet. Coulson had just made he and Fitz laugh about something, and she delighted in seeing the smiles on all of their faces.

"Trust me," Coulson finished up his story, "Consider yourself lucky that you don't have to deal with Barton on a daily basis." His fondness for the ex-agent was apparent in his exasperated tone, and Daisy wished that she could meet Hawkeye. She bet they could do great things together, pranking Phil Coulson.

In the moment of comfortable silence, Daisy slipped her hand into Mace's pocket, finding his own hand and wrapping her fingers around it.

_Let's go practice._

He visibly startled, and looked over at her. Coulson raised his eyebrow at them.

"What?" Mace asked out loud, not quite sure that he'd understood her correctly, so she very carefully tried to imagine, very clearly, her fingers sliding slowly through his hair, and his hands cupping her breasts. Images shared through skin-touch were usually abstract and more about textural feeling than pictures like a movie screen, but by his expression, he got the idea.

He gaped at her a little bit, his amusement from Coulson's story quickly shifting into hope, amazement, and desire. It reminded her a lot of the way it felt when they'd first kissed, and as that memory came to her, it came to Mace too.

_Practice...._

He 'sounded' hesitant, and she squeezed his hand encouragingly. His answering grin was lopsided, and he nodded at her.

"I'll see you two later, okay?" Mace told his friends, still looking at Daisy. Coulson snorted, and elbowed Fitz's arm.

"Sure. Hey Fitz, join me for a game. See if Simmons wants to join in," He walked over to the television to prepare it for a video game session, and Mace held onto Daisy's hand as he led the way up the stairs and toward his quarters. They were both anxious, but mostly they were excited, and Daisy had a feeling that Elena was probably right about their relationship becoming harder to hide.

* * *

 


End file.
